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"Once when Marshall Ney was going into battle, looking down at his knees which were smiting together, he said, 'You may well shake; you would shake worse yet if you knew where I am going to take you.' Napoleon was so much impressed with the courage and resources of Marshall Ney, that he said, 'I have two hundred million in my coffers, and I would give them all for Ney.'" Orison
Swett Marden What or who builds self-imposed barriers?
A stonemason named Fear, one who is highly skilled in building powerful
barriers from nonexistent stones. Where
does this craftsman live? In our
minds. He's always there, but it's up to us whether he lives in the
back of our minds or the front of our minds. Fear is the sworn enemy of adventure, which
is the third and perhaps most exhilarating force driving no-limits achievement.
And Fear goes exactly where we tell him to go.
We move Fear from the back of our minds to the front of our minds by
shifting our concentration away from our own courage, and choosing instead to
focus on that which frightens us. Not
only does that action change Fear's location but through the process of
concentration, it means we actually start to strengthen
Fear. Fear has no strength of its
own; its only strength is that which we choose to give it. When Fear defeats us, it does so because of
our own mental focus. And
unfortunately, the strength we pass along to Fear is the very strength we need
to overcome it! If, on the other
hand, we choose to push our goals, wrapped in courage, to the forefront of our
minds, then barriers break. You already possess sufficient courage to
initiate this process and see your personal adventure through. A person may not be born with an overabundance of talent, but
he or she will certainly possess all the courage needed, whether used or unused,
to develop the talent that is there. Long
after passing on to the next world, we will be remembered by family and friends,
not necessarily for our inborn talents, but for the amount of courage we used,
especially during our times of trial. The
strength and vividness of the memories our loved ones and friends hold of us
after we are gone will be directly proportional to the amount of courage we have
chosen to use. Immediate Action:
Starve your fear! Feed your
courage! Embrace your adventure! Point to Ponder Before You Go On:
"Fear knocked at the door. Faith
answered. No one was there."
(From above the fireplace at Hinds' Head Hotel, near London.) Excerpted from There Are No Limits |
