“In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.”

This quote scrolled past me today, somewhere in my travels. I liked it and snagged it. Now I forget who said it. Bill Cosby?

Sometimes inspirational quotes are thought of as hokey. I think they are helpful. Besides, it’s okay to be hokey. Why not? Fear literally is the mind killer. It can also be a mind virus that is spread around to others. What I observe is that the media and various authorities in our lives attempt to keep us in a constant state of anxiety and fear. Why? Sometimes it is a bad habit and not deliberate. There is quite a lot of subtle peer approval awarded for negativity and cynicism. We become trained to police each other in this manner.

Sometimes though, it is part of a design to keep us in a state of mind that is dis-empowered, more easily controlled, and perhaps more accepting of injustices and absurdities. One certainly can not be audacious if the mind is kept focused on fear and failure. As always, I am speaking to myself as much as to anyone else when I write up this kind of thing. Expel the “bad fairies” from your mind.

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” – Eleanor Roosevelt