Fear Not!

There is a Japanese proverb, "Fear is only as deep as the mind allows."

Fear, while an instinctual part of each and every one of us, should not control us or drive our actions, except in the case of extreme danger, like being attacked by a shark or other such creatures. Obvious, right?

Then why do so many let fear – some knowingly and most unknowingly – drive their daily actions and limit the life they can lead? Well, it doesn't limit everyone.

Torre DeRoche suffers from selachophobia, or what she fondly has renamed Horriblehorriblesharkydeathphobia. This is merely one among many of her fears when it comes to the ocean.

Yet she agreed to embark on an adventure that would mean sailing across the Pacifi c Ocean and facing every single one of those maritime-related fears head-on.

Let me paint the picture for you. Torre was in her mid-20s, a recent Australian transplant, and she met a man in a bar in San Francisco. Typical girl-meets-boy story, except for one thing. This boy asked the girl to go on a trip across the ocean with him. Well, the love-struck girl agreed.

Torre, who wrote a memoir about her journey, refl ects that love trumped fear and she didn't want fear to be the reason she said no.

So what did she do? Like any intelligent person, she dug deep and learned. She read books, signed up for classes and talked to various people all about what she feared most: "being in the middle of the ocean in the middle of the night" – and, oh yeah, the sharks too.

Eventually, Torre embarked on the fearsome journey and, to her surprise, she did more than just survive – she thrived. Torre discovered that fear is "often all about the anticipation" and that when "something bad is actually happening, you click into action and the anxiety goes away."

Now, Torre is careful to note that she didn't eradicate her fears. But she realized how to separate reasonable from unreasonable fears. She realized that the unreasonable ones, once acknowledged, would fade away. The reasonable fears could still be conquered but not removed.

There is a key lesson in Torre's discovery: To conquer means to overcome and take control.

Overcoming and conquering fear is something I've studied intensely because of my mentoring and training of CEOs and entrepreneurs in helping them to reach and realize their inner potential and achieve their big ideas.

You might not be able to eradicate your fears, but you can certainly take control of them and use them to work for you and not against you, or at least prevent them from stopping you from doing the things you want in life, like Torre did.

The only thing stopping you from realizing your God-given talents and capabilities is fear. Turn fear into fun and you will open the floodgates of your potential. Nothing – and I mean nothing – will be able to stop you then.

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Darren Hardy is the visionary force behind SUCCESS magazine as the Founding Publisher and Editor, and is the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of what has been called "the modern day Think and Grow Rich": The Compound Effect—Jumpstart Your Income, Your Life, Your Success (www.TheCompoundEffect.com) and the worldwide movement to onboard 10 million new entrepreneurs through his latest book The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster--Why Now is the Time to #JoinTheRide (www.RollerCoasterBook.com). Access Darren: www.DarrenHardy.com and get free daily mentoring: www.DarrenDaily.com.