Your biggest fear is an illusion of your past.

Whatever it is that you fear right now, whether it’s confrontation, cutting ties to chase a wild dream, asking that girl out, asking for a promotion, closing that sale, or praying for a stranger.

Almost every fear you have is an illusion. Why? Because the result of that action does not even exist. Fear makes sense when cave man sees bear sign and a fresh deer carcass. Now, for the most part, your fear, the thing wired to keep you alive, is a falsehood.

I was talking to my wife Jessi about this today. When it comes to leading people, or many other endeavors, your greatest fear is a result of some thing, or some incident, that no longer exists in real-time.

Think about it this way. What is the thing in your life you have taken the most violent action to avoid? Say your greatest fear is rejection. What would you do to hold on to a boyfriend or girlfriend in the past, to stave off or avoid being rejected by another person?

Now, fast forward to your life today. What are you doing NOW to avoid rejection? It could be lying a little bit about what you’re doing tonight to keep a friend from being upset. It could be keeping a job that you hate so you are simply “employed” but don’t have the “achem” “guts” to quit and strike out on your own. My goodness if you weren’t a lawyer or a finance guy or a “Fill in the blank” who would you lose? But, still, people choose misery.

I want to ask you today, what are you really afraid of? Chances are it lies somewhere close to your greatest pain in the past. A place and a moment that no longer exists, except in your head. This sounds harsh, but it is true, that moment no longer has to make choices for you.

So what can you do today to conquer your fear? Jesus has some good words that answer this question with brilliance.

Matthew 6:25-27
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

You can not add to your life by being worried. So go out there, and break the illusion of fear, after all, it doesn’t really exist.