Faith vs Fear

"You must expect great things from yourself. Faith brings out the best in you."

Fear:

• depresses and suppresses your abilities
• sees only the darkness
• is pessimistic
• predicts failure
• creates stress, worry, and anxiety
• wonders why all the bad things always happen to them

Faith:

• increases brainpower
• sees the silver lining
• is optimistic
• predicts success 
• prolongs life because it never frets
• knows things will come out right

People that are faithful are not shaken when disappointments, losses, or catastrophes come their way. Their faith looks beyond the negative and instead sees the sun behind the clouds.

Think about the things that bring you the most stress. Those worries that take the spring out of your step and rob you of your joy are not those which actually happen. If you constantly question the outcome of things you create doubt and you cannot thrive in the face of doubt. Fear creates failure.

Athletes are a prime example of this. If you golf you'll know exactly what I mean. If you hit a few bad shots you start to lose faith in your swing and begin making all kinds of corrections. Before you know it your body and mind don't seem to be working together and you've forgotten how to swing altogether. Or take a quarterback that has made a few bad decisions, is getting hit every time he drops back, and has receivers that aren't running the right routes. Over time, these factors ware on his mental capacity and he may begin to doubt his abilities or his teammates. When that happens he becomes timid and struggles even more.

Same thing in your life. If you hit a few roadblocks or hit a rough patch where things just don't seem to be going your way what do you do? What do you "think"?

Faith is a positive confidence in yourself and your abilities. It's what keeps you going when the odds are against you. When you're beat down and want to give up, when things have been so difficult that you just want to cry - faith is what gets you through. Faith is what lifts you up, rights the ship, puts that smile on your face, and gives you that spring in your step despite the troubles you're going through. Faith brings success.

Do you live with faith or with fear? 

"You can change what you are. You can change where you are in life by changing what goes into your mind. All you have to do is believe in yourself." - Zig Ziglar