Courage

Courage is required on the path to personal excellence. I have found a few quotes which I will share today -- they capture my thoughts quite well. I love the following quote because it states a simple truth about the greatness that lies within each of us. "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.' We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." (A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles", Harper Collins, 1992. From Chapter 7, Section 3])

Another quote which was given by Eleanor Roosevelt is also awesome... "You gain strength, courange and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face... You must do the thing you think you can not do." As I mentioned in one of my other postings, we learn our fears by experiences, watching others, etc. The "unlearning" of those fears occurs as we continue to act inspite of the fear. Ambrose Redmoon (don't know who he was) said, "Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear."

The pursuit of our best will only come as we face the challenges in front of us and consistently focus on developing strengths to become great!

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FEAR - Friend or Foe? (Cont.)

When I think of the struggle in overcoming challenges in the pursuit of personal excellence, I think of the movie scene from Rocky III where Rocky is training with Apollo Creed for the big fight against Clubber Lang. Rocky has become used to living large and has lost his edge which helped him defeat his past opponents.
He doesn't really have the "Eye of the Tiger" anymore. The scene I am referring to is with Rocky and Adrianne on the beach where he admits that he is scared for the first time in his life. I think everyone can relate to Rocky's feelings. It is amazing the impact fear can have on our lives. Fear is an interesting emotion that can either spur us into action, or freeze us in our tracks. I am interested in what motivates people to turn their fear into a positive force that pushes one beyond their ordinary capacity. I made the comment last week, that fear can be unlearned... and believe that it can if the person really wants to overcome the fear. A perfect example is public speaking, which has been said to be the number one fear, even ahead of fear of death. Here are the Top 10 Fears that I have found searching this topic.
1. Fear of public speaking (Glossophobia)
2. Fear of death (Necrophobia)
3. Fear of spiders (Arachnophobia)
4. Fear of darkness (Achluophobia, Scotophobia or Myctophobia)
5. Fear of heights (Acrophobia)
6. Fear of people or social situations (Sociophobia)
7. Fear of flying (Aerophobia)
8. Fear of open spaces(Agoraphobia)
9. Fear of thunder and lightning(Brontophobia)
10. Fear of confined spaces(Claustrophobia)

When I was younger I remember thinking about how to become more outgoing. For some reason, I learned to be reserved and quiet as I gradually grew older. In the 10th grade, I observed a friend who was a year older - he was often loud and some would say obnoxious. But, to me he seemed to be happy and trying to make others happy. So, I decided that I would "be" more outgoing. I acted inspite of my fears when I was around others. I chose to put my faith and courage ahead of my fears. I continue to look inside daily and force myself outside of my comfort zone, because I know this habit will help me on my way to attaining my personal best.

FEAR - Friend or Foe?

I'm going to jump right in on this topic because I believe "Fear" is a two-edged sword. It can either help us or hurt us, AND it depends on YOU (and me) to decide which it will be. Will I allow fear to help me achieve my personal best or keep me from my greatness?

When we are born and brought into this world, there are only two things that a baby is naturally afraid of. All other fears have been learned... which means we can unlearn those fears. This is perhaps the reason why I am so interested in the things that hold us back from reaching our full potential - our Personal Best. By tapping into the mindset and experiences that engrained certain fears in the first place, and by working through the thought processes engrained in our subconscious, we can recondition our thoughts, feelings, and actions to produce different results. We can unlearn anything that holds us back!

Now, you are probably waiting for me to tell the two fears we are born with... One, is the fear of loud noises. If you clap your hands loudly by a peaceful baby, then you will see the startle reaction and recognize that you scared the baby. Two, is the fear of falling. If you hold a baby and create the sensation of free-falling, you will notice the baby immediately outstretches their arms and the face will tense up with anticipation. These are the two things we have natural fear about.

In order to acheive our personal best, we must conquer our fears. We must learn to turn weakness into strength. We'll explore this topic in greater detail and focus on the positive and negative aspects of Fear. Till then... Be awesome!

Inspiration

The concept of writing about achieving personal excellence has been in the works (in my mind) for a few years. It began to solidify a couple of years ago when I watched my youngest daughter swim the 25M Freestyle in a swim meet at 3 yrs. old. I don't think she had any fear at that point, but just wanted to copy her two older sisters -- she had no inhibitions and just enjoyed the fun in the water.

A year later, she developed a sense of social consciousness and would not swim. Even with all the encouragement and coaxing, we were not able to get her to swim. She would only stand on the platform and cry - frozen with fear. What was the difference? How could I as a parent help my daughter? I wanted her to succeed so bad - not for me, but for her! I want her to constantly improve, to be her personal best!

For much of my life I have been interested in personal improvement, eliminating fear, empowering thought processes, solving problems, and really interested in anything to do with choosing to be better and helping others in the process. With this new year, 2010, along with the prompting of my wife, I have decided to document the Pursuit of my Personal Best.