It is impossible with finite minds to know how many dreams were unfulfilled, how many ideas were stillborn, how many great and transcendental feats were never accomplished because of fear. Recently, a friend and I were driving past a cemetery and he remarked, "You know, that place is the richest plot of land."

"What do you mean?" I asked him. He replied, "It is filled with unwritten books, plans that were never achieved, scientific ideas that were never patented, cures for sicknesses that were never revealed. People died with these ideas and, for fear of failure, never acted upon them."

Multiplied millions have never achieved their goals because they feared the consequences of attempting them. We receive so many creative ideas, so many thoughts that could revolutionise our lives, transform poverty into wealth, sickness into health, sorrow into joy, and yet we never venture out of our comfort zone to attempt these things because of fear.

Fear is an interesting thing. It is a necessary component of life. Not all fear is bad. Fear causes you to pause to assess danger and to take the necessary steps to minimise risk. Fear should cause someone not to swim across a crocodile-infested river, but it should not prevent such a person from crossing the river at all. If you need to get to the other side, you choose to ride in a boat. Fear becomes crippling and debilitating when, even though you have access to a boat, the fear of crocodiles prevents you from crossing the river at all.

The paradox of fear is that it can become a phobia, a crippling, disabling part of one's life, something that acts as a damper to any new idea, any venture.

There are people who trap themselves in dead-end jobs, not even venturing to send out a résumé. They want another job, but they fear leaving the one they have. They fear risk. But life is a risk. Every successful venture was once a risk. There is a risk of failure, but there is the opportunity to succeed. It is impossible to achieve the success without taking the risk. Frederick Wilcox was right, "Progress always involves risk. You can't steal second base and keep your foot on first."

FEEL THE FEAR AND DO IT ANYWAY

Author Susan Jeffers suggests that we feel the fear and do it anyway. Clearly, she could not be saying that we should act recklessly or irresponsibly. She is recognising the fact that fear is natural. Whenever you begin a new venture, start a new project, enter a new job, confront an unusual situation, there is fear, and this is where there is a dividing line between successful people and those who do not achieve their goals. Successful people feel the fear like the rest of us, but it does not prevent them from doing the things that they want to do, or have to do.

High achievers sense the fear we all sense, but they plunge ahead because the reward to be gained is a stronger motivation than the fear they feel. If your motivation is stronger than your fear, you will take action. I certainly would not swim across a crocodile-infested river, but if my grandchild fell in the river, I'd be in the water in a flash. The reward of saving that child is greater than the presence of crocodiles.

TAKING STOCK

Before you fail to act because of fear, do this simple exercise. Get a blank sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle. On the left, write the word FOR. On the right, place the word AGAINST. Proceed to list all the reasons why you should go ahead with your proposal or plan. On the other side, list all the reasons why you should not. Usually, the decision is plain before your eyes with this simple decision-making tool.

In the final analysis, what Bob Proctor said is food for thought: "We come this way but once. We can either tiptoe through life and hope that we get to death without being too badly bruised, or we can live a full, complete life, achieving our goals and realising our wildest dreams."