The Power of Thoughts : What is the worst that could happen?

Many of us start our journey with a sky of dreams and a sea of ideas. But most of us end up doing very little or nothing at all by the dawn. Why?

One of the reasons, I believe, is the inherent fear embedded in our genes - the fear of trying new things- may be coded by nature for survival purpose - Doing something different always means taking risk as we are trying to walk in less explored trails through the forests.

To start a journey that's not so much common, there is fundamental step - to overcome our fear of failure.

If we want to be the ones who want to do things that will let others dream for a better tomorrow, we have to start doing things which most people fear to do. For which we need to overcome our inherent fear – the fear that holds us within our comfort zone.

How to win the fear?

1.     Believe in yourself – as Napoleon says, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. (since it is 2020, lets rephrase “man” with “human”). We eventually become what we fundamentally think what we are. So the best way to move ourselves outside the comfort zone is to redefine our comfort zones and believe we own bigger territory.

2.     Strengthen your drives. As Elon says – drive, if strong enough, overrules fear at the end of the day. If we truly want to achieve something, we will get that even if all the odds are against us, all we need to do is to define why we do.

3.     Power of dreams – the man who taught a generation on how to dream – APJ Abdul Kalam - once said, “dream, dream, dream. Dreams transform into thoughts and thoughts result in action”. If our dreams are strong enough so that they start to disturb us on sleep, that’s the point where we begin to make a difference.

4.     Start doing – there is a million reason why things can’t happen. Even the way we walk can be turned to very complicated process of sensors, control systems and data processing – anything can be made as complicated as we want it to be to convince ourselves that its not possible – we have learnt that in school. But as Einstein once said, “any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex; but it takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction”. When we stop finding the reason why things can’t work and start finding solutions to problems, that’s when we conquer our fear and start doing things.

5.     The power of compounding –Einstein’s power of compounding is not only valid for numbers – that transfers well into our actions.  Admiral William H McRaven once said, “If you wanna change the world, start off by making your bed”. Which I had followed since the day I listened to his speech. The small pride of achieving small things motivates us to do the next small thing, and the next after. And at the end of the day, we eventually end up doing a lot of big things. Each time we achieve something, our dopamine based - rewards driven minds – overwrites fear with a touch of confidence and motivation.

6.      Make the baby steps – the more we think of the impossibilities the less the chance for an action to happen. Same way, the more we start doing small things, more things start to happen. As the saying goes, the journey of a thousand miles start with a single step. Remember, sliding friction is a lot less than static friction – i.e., once we start moving, the resistance drops down. It’s all about overcoming that band of peak resistance when we sit idle.

7.     Ask yourself -what’s the worst that could happen? – a great way to convince our human brain is to compare the possibilities of doing and not doing. According to one of the researches done a few years ago among old people, one of the greatest regrets were things that they didn’t do. Remember – anything we try – even if that fails adds our knowledge. Either we achieve what we want, or we end up learning why that won’t work so that we can do something better next time. How would we even know if we don’t dare to try in the first place? 

8.     Take the odds to strengthen you. When we try something new, there will always be failures and a ton of criticism. But the good news is, we have the chance to take it positively or negatively. If we take them constructively, we can in fact use them to fuel us forward. Remember when the 15 year old Cristiano Ronaldo said that he will once become the best foot ball player in the world, all his friends laughed – but he used that to push himself to prove them they were wrong and he won.

9.     Avoid the ‘Na’ Sayers. This is a tip from Grant Cardone and many other successful people. Last but not the least, surrounding ourselves with people who believe in us and likes to see the change we wish for is a great addition to our journey. They will give those small but important lifts when we slip or fall down and push us to keep going. The more we here something is possible, our brain automatically rewires to believe in it.

In short, the world has all the right to train us on how to fear and to try to stop us from achieving what we want. Though, the good news is - we have the complete right to take that criticism to crush us down or to build us even more powerful! The way we pick us defines our destiny. Ask yourself what's the worst thing that could happen if you chose to try- may be we will just learn a new lesson!