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Accountability Challenge Week 37:  Fear vs. Faith.

 “The underlying cause of all trouble is fear”           Emmet Fox.

Take a moment to digest these words. To me they pretty much sum up everything that ails society as a whole, but also everything that stands in the way of you and me achieving the goals and dreams that are most important to us. Fear in its many forms and incantations prevent us from living the life that we were meant to live.

Those are some pretty powerful words.

Let’s take a look at what’s dominating the business headlines around the Globe right now that are impacting us on a collective level.

Fear of recession in the US and in the global markets.

  • Fear of the high debt levels in Europe
  • Fear that the US will not be effective manage and control its huge government deficit.
  • Fear of  unemployment
  • Fear of Inflation.
  • Fear of losing money in the stock market
  • Fear, fear, and more fear

These are all serious and important issues that need to be dealt with in a responsible, competent and expedient manner.

Are these fears new by any means? Certainly not-each of these fears has been around for decades if not centuries, and tend to rear their heads on an alternating but consistent basis.

Despite all of these long standing fears, if we are to take look through the lens of historical perspective we see that the financial and economic conditions of the countries and the inhabitants of our planet have been steadily improving. Life expectancies today are light years ahead of where they were a scant 100 years ago. Living standards are continually improving around the Globe. Information and medical technology is also improving at aphenomenal rate.

Allow me to share with you a practical example and a great story to illustrate my point. Go out and buy the DVD, (or better yet, watch it in on Netflix if it is available) for the Movie Apollo 13. Watch the part where they are trying to figure out how to safely return to earth the three Astronauts played by Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon and the guy from Twister, You’ll notice that all of the highly intelligent NASA space staff, which includes the smartest scientists and engineers down on planet earth, were relegated to using slide rules to solve the problem.

Why you ask were they using slide rules? They were using them because the mainframe computer at NASA had literally crashed. They had overloaded the computer with so much information and so many calculations that it would no longer function.

Now, go and take a moment and look at your blackberry, your iPhone or smart phone of choice. Do you realize that what you are holding in your hand has a computer in it that is a million times smaller, a million times cheaper, and a thousand times more powerful than all of the computing power that was at the disposal of NASA back in 1970.

How is it again that despite all of advances that we have made, we are still living in a world dominated by fear?

It’s because fear is imbedded in our DNA. As Emmet Fox so profoundly stated, “Fear is the underlying cause of all trouble”.

The bad news is that fear is here to stay. It will never go away.

The good news is that each of us has a weapon at our disposal to fight and defeat this fear, regardless of what seems to be going on in the world around us, or more appropriately in the world “within us”.

The greatest weapon that we have is FAITH.

Faith vs Fear

Yes, this can mean our spiritual faith, and I encourage you to deeply explore and tap into your own particular branch of spiritual based faith.

From a practical, non secular point of view it also means faith in ourselves and faith in the future. Faith that life in general is getting better, and that as long as we tap into our faith through positive thought and action to overcome our own individual fears our lives are also certain to improve.

I believe that failure in business or life can only come from a loss of faith.  We fail when we give in to our fears either on a conscious level or more insidiously, on a subconscious level.

Yes, it does take courage to face your fears head on, but the rewards are worth the risk

Fear by definition comes from a perception of imminent danger or risk – whether or not the risk or danger is real.

Bertrand Russell another great author and highly influential “new thinker” from the last century wrote these powerful words that I encourage you to dwell or meditate upon.

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

Finally, the next time that fear takes a hold and tries to take you off course remember…each of us has a choice-we can choose to fall victim to our fear, or we can choose to move forward with faith.

I don’t know about you, but I’m going to choose faith!

Expect Success,

Mark,

Thought for the week:  

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals.  Henry Ford Expect Success,

Mark,

Mark Hudon, CFP™CCS™

Financial Fitness Coach, Certified Cash Flow Specialist™

Creator of The Core Conditioning Program™

 

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