Who's afraid?
I subscribe to a weekly newsletter called Monday Morning Memo by Roy H. Williams.
Recently, while listening to the podcast version of the newsletter, I heard the following:
I take a breath and close my eyes and remember the words of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus published 1800 years ago, “Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”
Anthony Hopkins shared a similar thought with James Lipton during a recent interview on Inside the Actor's Studio, “Today is the tomorrow I was so worried about yesterday.”
Another author that I have enjoyed is Frank Herbert who wrote the books of Dune. In it there is a passage often repeated called the Litany Against Fear:
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
The Book of Proverbs says this:
For as he thinks within himself, so he is.
The man described in the passage isn't the kind of guy you want to follow after, but the idea of what the man thinks of himself, he is, is an interesting idea that has presented itself to me several times over the last few weeks. Robert Kiyosaki in his "Rich Dad, Poor Dad," book speaks of his rich dad saying things like "I'm rich, and the rich don't do things like this," and "I'm broke right now, I'm not poor," (more or less).
It's setting your mind to something. Williams points out in his memos and books that we have exponentially more synapses and nerve connections in our minds than we do in our sensory organs, and goes on to say that we can experience a more convincing reality in our minds than we can in, well, reality.
I am in shape and quite well off.
I date amazing women.
I'll fill you in on how this goes.
