Many people live their entire lives drowning in doubt and fear.  Almost everything they do is motivated by trying to avoid something bad, not pursuing something good.  This leads them to look at everything through a negative lens, which in turn causes them to live lives far below their potential, both potential for success (by whatever their definition) and for happiness.

This is not something that anyone has to accept, though changing can be very difficult.  It is relatively simple, but simple is not the same as easy.  Still, isn’t it worth the effort, when the reward is courage without limit, in whatever circumstances you find yourself?

Where do doubt and fear come from?

Doubt and fear both originate from the same thing… worrying about which choice will turn out with the best (or worst) outcome.  Fear is the worry that comes before the choice, and sometimes between the choice and the outcome.  Doubt is another side of the same coin, the worry that comes after having made the decision… worrying about whether or not it was the best choice.

Doubt and fear are experienced differently, and have different ways of keeping you from reaching your potential.

• Fear

  Fear works by keeping you from making choices that might have the possibility of you getting hurt.  It can cause you to run away, to hide, or to turn a blind eye to opportunity.  It can also cause you to lash out, trying to hide your fear, because you are afraid of someone knowing that you are afraid.

• Doubt

  Doubt, on the other hand, keeps you from putting in the follow through necessary to actually get the results you started out looking for.  It causes you to pull back, to not really give things the energy and attention that they need.  Doubt seldom causes you to lash out at others… it’s far more likely to make you hurt yourself.

How do you find “The End Of Doubt And Fear”?

Since both originate from worry about the outcome of your choices, the way to end them is to remove the uncertainty from your choice.  How do you do that?  By always being true to yourself, always going with the choice that best reflects the real you (not the persona that you project for the sake of others).

Any time that you do something for external reasons, reasons other than it being the choice that best reflects who you are and who you want to be, you bring uncertainty into the picture.  As the uncertainty grows, doubt and fear creep in… which choice is the right choice?  Did you make the best choice?

When you start basing your choices on what reflects who you are and who you want to be, you gain a lot of clarity.  Many choices fall away, being obviously not the right decision for you.  You also lose a lot of your investment in the outcome of your choices, since the choice itself, reflecting you as it does, is enough justification.

As more and more of your choices reflect your nature, there will be less and less uncertainty.  There will only BE one choice, and that choice is the right choice for you, even if it doesn’t end up with the best possible outcome.  This clarity, this lack of uncertainty, makes it harder and harder for doubt or fear to work its way into your life.  You may make a choice that produces an outcome other than what you wanted, but it won’t bother you, because it was still the right choice for you.

And the right choice for you isn’t determined by outside, objective factors.  There is no better or best, worse or worst… it’s the right choice for you, there can only be one right choice in any decision.  Since there is no other choice, there is no way that the outcome could have been better or worse if you had made a different choice.

What happens when doubt and fear are gone?

That one is simple… you find peace.  It doesn’t matter if other people think you made the wrong choice, or if another choice might have, had you chosen it instead, given you better results.  It doesn’t matter because you are making the choices that fit who you are and who you want to be.

And that’s enough.