Stop being so afraid.

Arguably one the greatest samurais that has ever lived named Miyamoto Musashi once said, “Go alone to places frightening to the common brand of men. Become a criminal of purpose.”

In U.S. Army Ranger training they put you into situations where you’re alone, and if you have to be rescued during training, you’re not allowed back into the program.

Similar training has been used for thousands of years by the Greeks, Romans, Samurai and several other cultures.

It serves as a fact of life—that you must go out into the forest alone without the help of anyone.

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy ate in the White House Dining Room with some of the smartest men in the world at the time; a total of forty-nine Nobel Prize winners were in attendance. At the dinner President Kennedy said, “Probably the greatest concentration of talent and genius in this house—except for perhaps those times when Thomas Jefferson ate alone.”

Thomas Jefferson became a founding father because he faced this fear, when very few people believed in him.

Gandhi embarked alone on his own journey—he was responsible for the freedom of an entire nation.

Rosa Parks was the only one who wouldn’t get off the bus. She changed an entire nation.

Fear is the biggest problem that stops us—we feel a rush of chemicals in our bodies that makes us uncomfortable.

The ancient stoic philosophers spoke a lot about fear. Marcus Aurelius, who lead the Roman Empire, said, “It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”

If you conquer small fears on a daily basis, it will massively impact every area of your life.

 

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Editor: Carolyn Gilligan