Photo: Wounded Knee Cemetery, SD

 During the 1800's there was a great deal of fear and anger between groups of settlers and Native Americans that erupted into violence. Attempts at avenging wrongs often resulted in attacks on innocent members of both groups, which created more anger. The anger was natural and justified, but the response led to shameful actions like the slaughter by U.S. troops of over 200 Lakota civilians who were camped at Wounded Knee under a white flag.

During the 1950'...

 I have never known a mountain climber who has never slipped. I have never known a successful business or investor who has not lost money on at least one deal. The survivors are the people who recognize the risks and take precautions to limit their losses. The safety rope won’t prevent the climber from falling, but it ensure that a fall won’t be fatal.

Fears are warning signs.  They alert you to possible dangers and should make you be cautious.  But fears should not be treated as stop signs.  Actions based on fears are strictly defensive; at best they help you minimize your losses, but they won’t help you accomplish your goals.

      The wise man doesn’t ignore his fears, but uses his hopes to guide him forward as he proceeds with caution.

      Imagination is a powerful tool.  It lets us envision the future that we want.  When we let our positive visions to guide us, we help make that future come true.

      We can also imagine an incredible number of different things that can go wrong.  If we let these doubts be our guide, they will freeze us into inaction and nothing will improve.

Worrying is a distraction, focusing my mind on what might happen in the future instead of what is happening right now.  The difficulty is that if you start worrying about worrying, that only makes the problem worse.  The real key is to think about what is the best thing for me to be doing right now, and then do it.

      I don’t like it when somebody tells me I have to do something.  If that person is more powerful than I am (like a teacher, parent or police officer), I will probably do it while he is standing there supervising me, but I am not likely to continue doing it once he is gone.  But when somebody takes the time to convince me that it is a good idea to do something, I’ll continue doing it without anyone having to supervise me.

      General Eisenhower could definitely getting the soldie...

Fear raises its ugly head when we are confronted by situations that we aren’t sure that we can handle.  Fear makes us want to avoid the things that we are afraid of.  But, the fear is not inherent in the thing we are facing; it rises out of our doubts.  Madame Curie’s advice is to seek to understand the scary things so that we learn how to handle them.  Understanding will eliminate the fear and expand our comfort zone.  For example, since I understand how lightning works, I can shield m...