Fear and Faith...

I look to a lot of sources for inspiration and information. Many of the sources I choose come from notable and memorable figures from the world's history. Today I was reading through Selections From the Writings and Speeches of William Randolph Hearst. People throughout history have had mixed feelings in regards to Hearst and the manner in which he conducted business. Many have seen Citizen Kane a great movie loosely based on the life of Hearst.  I encourage you to look into Hearst and his life. He may not be the prime example of an individual, which there was only one ever in existence, you can see a driven man who made and left a mark in our world that will last forever. He left a legacy.

He had many speeches and articles that he wrote. Some of the best that I have read he had written to the paper boys that delivered his papers. He gave them a practical guide to life and success that was similar to him mentoring the boys himself. As I read through this book today and checked out some articles I came across an article that was published on October 22, 1941 entitled "Fear and Faith" I do not have any publishing rights to republish this, but I wanted to share it with you. I couldn't find it anywhere online. So here it is as printed in the book published in 1948, just two years after my father was born.

Fear and Faith
"In the News" -- October 22, 1941.

Fear is a dreadful thing.
It incapacitates the mind, numbs the nerves, disables the muscles, perverts thought and paralyzes action.
Take a plank and lay it on the ground.
You can walk the plank without the slightest difficulty.
You can run across it--Skip across it.
To do so is no task, no strain because you have no fear.
But suspend that plank 200 feet in the air and contemplate walking across it.
You falter, you tremble.
Your knees grow weak, your heart grows faint, your head becomes dizzy.
And if in that condition you try to cross the plank you will fail and fall.
There is nothing the matter with you, however, but fear.
You are thinking about what might happen to you if you missed a step.
Your mind is concentrated upon the consequences of failure.
When you can think only of the certainty of success you will succeed...
We know what evil fear will wreak.
We know what strength the spirit gives, what healing and upholding it exerts.
Why should we not be free from fear?
Why should we not all have a deeper confidence in the goodness of man and a surer faith in the love of God.

end.

Wow, what a great passage. I feel that sometimes in life fear is so common that it invades our subconscious mind and becomes ingrained as part of our daily life. My wife Carrie and I were discussing negativity and negative thoughts and how they can command a controlling interest in your life.  I am working hard everyday to develop a personal system that can combat those negative thoughts and eliminate them the best I can from my life.  The best analogy that I could come up with is that negative thoughts are like heat seeking missiles.

The best way to start this out is like the conversation that my wife and I had. I found out that not everyone shared my love for aviation at a young age which involved lots of reading, movies and video games about fighter jets and the pilots that flew them. When I was young there was no one cooler than a fighter jet pilot. These guys were tough, in-shape and had cool sunglasses, not to mention they flew some very powerful machines that had a lot of explosives on them. WOW!

I was excited, Carrie not so much.

During the Vietnam war there was development beginning for "heat-seeking missiles". These heat seeking missiles were designed for destroying bombers by finding a heat signature and zeroing in on the signature and blowing it up.  They would be able to follow the heat generated by the engine and then destroy the target. So naturally the people in the targeted aircraft didn't really want to be blown up, so they developed a flare that would trick the heat-seekers into thinking that the flare was the target and not the actual aircraft. (It seems like ti would be so easy to explain until you start explaining it.) Since they then had flares that would distract and disable the missiles more pilots could live and fight another day.

Similarly we can use this example with our own minds. Now this may be a stretch for you where you are currently at, and that is OK. Take it one step at a time. After you realize that there are positive and negative thoughts in your mind, this will make a lot more sense. Read chapter One in the Magic of Thinking Big  by David J Schwartz, PH. D. entitled "Believe you can succeed and you will." Mr Triumph and Mr Defeat are Positive and negative thoughts.

Mr Defeat in my example would represent the "heat-seeking Missile" and Mr Triumph would equal the flare that destroys the missile. Every time Mr Defeat is starting in your mind, launch out a flare of Mr Triumph and stop the negative thought. For example you would like to start reading the new book that your mentor recommended. You take it out and look at it, and say to yourself 'This may be above my level, I'm not ready for this yet,' In the middle of that sentence you need to deploy the flare of 'I may not understand everything, but I am fully capable of learning and understanding.' This is a more positive viewpoint and will encourage you along the journey.

I have just begun this journey myself, but the visual image of shooting a flare in my brain makes sense and it is fun for me to stop those negative thoughts. I encourage you to check with your mentor and seek out something that can help you. Don't have a mentor? Read the Magic of Thinking big! Dr. Schwartz has a great way to set the tone.

Thank you and God Bless.