Unmasking inner fear

The story is told of a wise man who met Death walking towards a certain village.
“Where are you going?” asked the wise man.
“I am going to that village over there to work,” replied Death.
“How many are you going to take?” asked the wise man.
“I have been given authority to take only 10 persons who have finished their work on earth,” replied Death.
“Okay, so only 10 will be taken?” inquired the wise man.
“Yes, here is the list,” said Death.
The wise man watched as Death made his way to the village. The wise man then continued his journey. A month later he heard that over one thousand men had died in that village of an epidemic. After a few weeks, he met Death again on the road and said to him: “You lied to me, you said you were only going to take 10 but instead I hear over a thousand died.”
Death replied: “I was sent to take 10, and that is what I did. I certainly took only 10. It was fear that killed the rest!”
Often, in dealing with personal problems, our greatest challenge to overcoming the problem is our fear of that problem. When fear grips us, it enlarges the problem and gives the problem control over us. The primary way through which fear strikes us is through our thinking. Fear causes diseases, kills, breeds distrust and destroys relationships. The World War I over a hundred years ago was driven by fear. The Cold War that led to the building of nuclear weapons that could destroy the whole planet was driven by fear. The recent xenophobic attacks in South Africa were also driven in part by fear, the fear of difference. When we have a problem in our own lives and we seek to overcome it, the first thing we need to do is directly confront the fear we have of the problem or challenge. Fear paralyses you, it prevents you from taking the required action to deal with the problem.
Another thing that people don’t often think about is that they create their own problems. Some people are afraid of success or succeeding and therefore will block opportunities from happening. This is in part because a part of us does not believe that we deserve good things to happen to us. We are faced with a situation or potential achievement and we look at the possibility of failing it with the ‘what if’ question. The language of the mind for fear objects is the word ‘what if?’ Every fear we have about our situation or challenge is accompanied by the self-talk question, ‘what if?’ What if I fail? What if people laugh at me? What if things will never improve?
The way to conquer the fear of success or indeed any challenge is to shift from ‘what if’ to yes I can. Here are the steps to follow. First, list down all your ‘what ifs’. When that is done, then alongside the ‘what ifs’ put the exact opposite, e.g. alongside ‘what if I fail?’ write ‘what if I succeed?’ You are feeding the opposite and this is important. Then focus on the positive opposite and see how what you tell yourself, changes and reduces your fear. It seems so simple, but is so profound.
Remember this: When the child starts taking her first tottering steps, immediately she realises “Wow me! I, too, can walk” and that realisation becomes the energy that drives her to walk more and more in spite of the many falls she will experience.
The dawning realisation and conviction that ‘I can’ is probably the only motivation we need to push us on to great accomplishments. For, everything we ever sought to do, we can do now in spite of every barrier or any sense of limitation we have previously imposed on ourselves.