The toughest task in this world is to confront something that we are afraid of doing.
This seems like an obvious proposition; but if it were obvious, then people would be more willing to face their fears.
I firmly believe that our purpose on this Earth — the reason we as humans exist at all — is to evolve. Not biologically evolve (although that may be happening), but to spiritually evolve. Everyday, our task on this planet is nothing more than to break down the barriers of our own minds and to trek onward into the ever expanding terrain of freedom.
The barriers that stand in our way are the barriers we have constructed ourselves. They are the barriers of fear. These barriers represent the lessons we must learn if we are to move forward in our lives, to find greater happiness and joy.
They are individual barriers. A man who is afraid of his parents will have to learn how to handle them if he is to find greater happiness in life. Or a woman may be scared to confront a past instance of abuse. One could give a million examples of a fear. Everyone has something, or somethings, they are afraid to confront, that they would wish would go away. The individual examples don’t matter; rather, it is the fact that such fears exist at all which act as the challenge to individual growth.
Tackling such fears takes courage. Courage does not mean aggression, or militarism. Courage is simply a sense of confidence, born of self-love, that such fears can be tackled. One must carry with him or her the intention to tackle the fear; and, grounded in such intention, one can then confront the fear once and for all and move on with things.
Once the light of courage is cast into the shadows, the fear is minimized, and then goes away forever. The fear goes away because the fear never really existed at all. It was all in your head.
It is the job of leaders to display this courage. This is why we have leaders at all. A leader without courage is a leader in name only. No doubt, the disease of fear can spread rapidly, but courage, too, is an emotion that can be shared with others. And a leader who is filled with courage can be the shining star of his or her people.
