from

Mastering Fear: The Ultimate Challenge

by Steven Bisyak & Michael McDermott

(pg 143-146)

A positive focus in your life can take many forms. For instance

• personal growth
• success
• high self-esteem
• enjoying life
• loving yourself and others more
• making more money
• getting all you want out of life

The quality of your experience in life is the direct result of where your focus is. When you focus only on "what if's" and negative pictures of disasters in your future, it destroys your enjoyment of the moment. Letting go of fear means empowering yourself to have more fun in life. When you focus on the best, it allows you to take action. Fear cannot limit you.

It all you can think of is ''What would my mother say?" shift your focus. If you can't think of one positive thing to focus on, find something in your field of vision and focus your mind on that. For instance, it could be a person, a tree, or a rock. It doesn't matter.

The point is, if you're paying 100% attention, you're only capable of focusing your mind on one thing at a time. If you focus on something other than your fear or negativity, that fear ceases to exist for you the moment you shift your focus.

Unless something is in your mind, it doesn't exist for you in that moment. It can't be a part of your reality unless you consciously perceive it or call it to mind by remembering it.

Pay attention
To what you see
For what you perceive is your
Reality

Michael McDermott

A monk was walking on a path in a jungle. Pretty soon a tiger started chasing him. The faster he ran, the faster the tiger ran. Soon the tiger joined two other tigers, who entered the chase. The monk ran over to the edge of a cliff and grabbed on to a vine. As he hung on to the vine, he saw below him three tigers waiting for him to fall. Just then, a rat came to the edge of the cliff and began chewing through the vine that the monk was holding on to.

In that moment. the monk glanced up and saw a small strawberry. Just before he fell from the cliff, he popped the strawberry into his mouth. He enjoyed that strawberry so much that he didn't even mind falling off the cliff and being eaten by the tigers!

The moral of the story is: The monk had practiced meditation all his life. Because of this, he had the ability to pay 100% attention. By paying 100% attention to the experience of the strawberry in his mouth, everything else ceased to exist for him in that moment. When he popped the strawberry into his mouth, the tigers disappeared, and the fear vanished. He became one with the experience of eating the strawberry and everything else, in his perception, ceased to exist.

Focus is determination. When you break a brick, you realize it's possible that you could pulverize your hand. So you accept that possibility. Then you focus your mind on the best. You visualize the brick breaking in half, and you see your hand going completely through It. You determine
the outcome by your focus. Believe in yourself 100%. You have to be 100% committed and you can't just try. Nobody ever did anything by "trying. There's a world of difference between trying and doing.

Focus is like a laser beam. When light is diffused, it has little power it's very weak, like a fluorescent light. Focus those same light rays into a laser beam, and you can cut through the toughest diamond with that focused light! A laser beam is focused, and it can penetrate anything because the rays are focused. Your mind is like that. Intelligence, power, and ability are direct results of mental focus or concentration.

Concentration, focusing your mind and believing in yourself 100%, is the key to success, whether you're breaking a brick or meeting a challenge on the job. Put emotion behind your focus. Bending rebar takes that kind of focus. When you're standing with the sharp end of a rebar against your throat, you realize it could puncture your throat. It could puncture your windpipe and lacerate your spine. You could get a tracheotomy! It can be very scary.

Focusing is like flipping a switch in your mind. You focus on the center of the bar, think "bend," and go for it. You have to give it 100% commitment or it just will not happen.

Focusing on the best helps you tremendously! It will give you the ability to accomplish whatever you want to in life! You can have successful relationships, make more money, and achieve success. Spend some time each day focusing on positive outcomes for all the problems that come up from time to time in your life. Focus on the best that can possibly happen and it probably will!