Creating Success from the Inside Out: Develop The Focus and Strategy To Uncover the Life You Want

III.4. Choosing Failure; Choosing Success

When I talk about excuses and fear, I'm not trying to blame or put anybody down. We all have our own things to deal with, and each of us sees different aspects of ourselves within the sections of this book. If we asked someone close to us to read this book and tell us what theysee in our lives, it might be surprising. In fact, I encourage you to do that. Sometimes the things we think we're really good at hiding from others, are right out there in the open, all the time. Like the drunk who thinks he's real smooth and cool ... although everyone knows he's hammered. We figure what goes on in our head stays in our head, but it isn't so.

People around us see more than we think they do. We can spend our whole lives wearing masks and pretending everything is okay, that we're cool or tough or whatever, but those around us know. We can spend our whole lives building walls to protect us so we never get hurt, but in the end, like campers in the middle of a protective ring of fire, with wolves circling around them, we become prisoners of our own walls. The wolves are all in our head, already in charge, dominating our thoughts and actions and filling us with fear.

Recognize Yourself?

We have all wrestled with the Fear of People or Fear of Failure in some area of our lives. Even great heroes honestly admit that courage isn't the absence of fear, but the overcoming of fear. Great men and women have always had to overcome the same fears and doubts that ...