"No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear."
— Edmund Burke

How often have you dealt with hard choices related to your work or personal life that require decisions that do not guarantee that you will be successful in the path you might choose? How often have you failed to act or delayed a decision because of the fear that you might not choose wisely? How often has your fear of the unknown or lack of assurance of success stymied you and led you to regret opportunities missed? All of us must deal often with the hesitations and doubts that stem from relatively constant sources of anxiety and dread that we lead ourselves to believe are the product of outside forces that we lack the confidence to confront. We may not be certain of the nature of the threats or even that they are real, but our emotional state is impacted in such a way that these perceptions govern our actions and create misgivings about our ability to trust ourselves and to be confident in our personal decisions and choices. If confronted by a real threat, our fear may allow us to act wisely and avoid danger, as when we encounter a rabid dog or avoid a downed electrical wire; but consider the number of times such real events occur versus the daily fears we harbor about our perceptions of threats or of possible negative outcomes of our actions. Imagined fears, the distress of possible failure, and anxiety about the unknown are far more prevalent in our lives than all of the real threats we may encounter in a lifetime.

Imagine a life in which you might distinguish between true outward threats and the fears that are engendered in the inner chambers of your mind. Imagine replacing fear with a confidence in decisive action and finding inner strength in knowing that your decision may or may not provide the immediate results that you seek but that you will have moved forward and are not restricted by personal doubt. Acquiring such fearlessness is possible and, in the quest for wisdom, is essential. There is a way out of the shadow of fear and into the illuminated world of confident living.