I will tell you that for a long time I was afraid and fearful and hurt. Lots of my childhood. I was chronically depressed and in pain. I was a victim of a lot of things that most people don’t ever experience, and shouldn’t experience. And I thought myself as a victim. And I never took responsibility for my life. I wanted to blame. I wanted to assign responsibility to everything except myself. Genetics. Parents. School. Teachers. Friends. God. You name it.
I hit bottom so many times, it became a familiar place. Disappointment and hurt were familiar, but miserable.
My life changed when I stopped being afraid.
Afraid of what? Death. Annihilation. Shame. Damaging my ego. Hurt. I was controlled by my fear.
I decided that I was on a path to being a homeless bum. Because I was. 19 years old. Drug addict. Overdosing. High School drop out. Angry. Self destructive. Living on couches. Poor. Ashamed. Alone.
I figured I would rather die, because I felt dead already.
That’s when things changed: When I stopped being afraid. When I am already dead, I have nothing to lose. When I am at rock bottom, the only direction is up. When I was a bum, a loser, I had nothing to lose, and I realized I had everything to gain.
So I stopped being afraid of everything, stopped being afraid of trying, of embarrassing myself, of failing, of suffering, of doing things I haven’t done, of knowing more, of being different, of disappointing people, or caring what people thought.
And I took full responsibility for my life.
No one knows my duty better than I know it.
No one can care for me more than I can care for myself.
My parents can’t. My friends can’t. No one knows my best but me. I stopped living for everyone else. I stopped explaining myself. Everyone can criticize anything. Let them have their critical misery. Let them judge themselves with the same ruler they judge me with. I’ll have nothing to do with it.
When I realized this I realized I could achieve anything if I decided to set a goal and work torwards it. Nothing can stop a man but himself. Nothing. Where there is a will there is a way.
And I read a book titled “As a Man Thinketh” by James Allen, and a life changing epiphany occurred: The quality of your thoughts determine the quality of our life. Reality and perception are not REAL. They are illusions, constructions in our mind. They only exist within us, not in the world. This is when I began voraciously reading books, to fill my mind with only the best thoughts, by the wisest most successful men.
You see, we only perceive obstacles when we don’t know the solution.
When a man changes the way he looks at the world the world he looks at changes. A man becomes what he thinks about all day long. Change your thinking and your life changes. We reap what we sow. Sow good thoughts and reap wholesome feelings. Our thoughts become our actions, our actions become our habits, our habits become our character, and our character becomes our destiny.
Our fears are irrational. Fears of being wrong, fears of failing, fears of death, fear of being unloved, of being not enough, fears of being embarrassed, fear of pain, fear of being criticized, fear of being unpopular.
These fears are not real, and they control us and make us small.
We ALL DIE. It’s just a matter of time. Embrace that reality and you can do anything. You have no fear, and you lunge any any difficulty, and love it.
Overcoming the fear of death is the first step in becoming more alive.
Our life is like a wave forming momentarily in the ocean, taking shape, joining with other waves for a period, before sinking into the great blue ocean that is the universe.
Whatever the mind of a man can conceive and believe, the man can achieve.
The only major difference separating one person from another is their psychology. If you can achieve a positive psychology, and you adopt successful thoughts, a optimistic attitude of mind, you will overcome obstacles with no more difficulty than anything else you’d spend your time doing.
I want to live fully, and do whatever it is that I am fearful of. Showing people that you can do anything. That struggle is life, and we don’t have to be defined by it. We can define it. And empowering people the way I’ve learned about this empowerment. Develop our infinite potential.
William Dare 