Looking Inside Ourself-5

Fear of Failure

Courage is not the lack of fear but the ability to face it

In Ramayana we know about twin brothers Vaali & Sugreev used to fight among themselves for Kingdom and Supremacy. Always Vaali used to win, as he had the power to absorb the opponent’s potency, with those who fight him directly. Till Lord Rama supports Sugreev & kills Vaali from behind the bushes, during their fight.

Here we can see this part in an interesting and different observation. May be Vaali & Sugreev was one and the same person, who was depressed and dejected. Sugreev might have the fear of failure from achieving the dominance over his Kingdom. May be Lord Rama motivated him and made him to overcome his fears. Sugreev was inspired to raise his potential and made to challenge his belief to control over his senses again. Also the factor “Vaali” can be figured as “Fear or Doubt” which was the absorbing power.

Fear is nothing more than a habituated reaction to a perceived threat.

As we begin to test our beliefs and potential, we may face some fears along the way. We tend to avoid situations that make us feel uncomfortable. Our fears are a direct result of our beliefs. Or, more particularly, our fears are the result of CHALLENGING our beliefs. There are many more ways to challenge our fears, but the main point is to avoid letting them control our life. Fear can be so relentless that it SEEMS to be out of our control, but fear is nothing more than a thought. As long as we remember that WE are the one in control, not our fears.

Doubt is the Dream Destroyer. It’s the Anti-Hope. It causes us to abandon our dreams. We simply decide they are NOT possible and drop them. Doubt can cause us to fall back when we would rather be moving forward. Doubt can make us to question our own inner knowing.

Doubt is another destructive force in our life, and is a lot closely related to fear. In fact, fear can cause doubt, and doubt can cause fear. They can act as magnifiers for each other, or co-exist together and make our life misery.

Doubts are simply another form of limiting beliefs. If we doubt our ability to do something, we won’t do it. We won’t even attempt it. If we doubt the availability of opportunities, we will quit ourselves to what we already have. If we doubt the goodness of other people, we will resist any help offered to us.

In order to push our limits, we need to take doubt right out of the equation.  We do this by embracing the opposite of doubt “BELIEF”.  Sometimes we have to take on the role of detective to figure out what’s really going on inside of us. With a little scrutiny and a lot of brutal honesty, we will see things more clearly.

No matter what, let’s make a promise to ourselves that we are going to give it our absolute best. Even if there seems to be no way to create a favorable outcome and even if the going gets rough - we will still try. It takes courage and determination to do this; but more often than not, we will be pleasantly surprised by the results.