1) Remember thoughts are real, life altering things, but feelings are NOT facts.

We all know the saying by Napoleon Hill: Anything the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.

That saying is true for better or worse. We can create an atmosphere of optimism and possibilities in our minds, which then outpours from us to the outer world, or we can create forbidding obstacle courses in our own minds by imagining the worst-case scenario of everything, and the world outside becomes a menacing landscape.

I have been reading a lot of Brene’ Brown lately, and she writes that most fear is about scarcity of some kind.

One tiny thought of scarcity leads to another, and then another. I think, There isn’t enough money or success to go around. The economy is so bad; I’m never going to get a good job. Why even try for my dream job? I don’t have enough then translates to I am not enough. That is a feeling, and it is a mirage.

2) Never judge your insides by others’ outsides. Don’t assume anyone has more of anything than you, or let that assumption defeat you. That is another mirage.

I have walked into friends’ ” mansions” many times to find no furniture and bare mattresses strewn on the floor. ” The art of appearance” is just that– an art. All of us have, and to a certain extent, need a carefully constructed persona we present to the world. To live my life and label myself as less based on someone else’s persona is going to keep me in fear and shame.

3) Cultivate a Belief in Abundance. The only remedy there can possibly ever be to this mirage of scarcity is the belief that abundance is possible for even us. Every trite expression I ever hated applies here: Anthony Robbins called it an attitude of gratitude. Others say count your blessings, or use a gratitude list. The sayings are trite, because they are true.

I prefer to call it mindfulness. If I get out of the impending apocalypse in my head long enough to focus around me for just a few moments, I see how much I already have, and that gives me a sense of the possibilities for the future.

Notice I said belief in abundance. There is still commitment and work involved. Bill Gates was not born a billionaire. He had years of honing his craft, but he believed it could happen and it did.

4) Have an Affinity for Infinity.

Embrace the idea that our Source is infinite, and loves us all equally and perfectly. Perfect love casts out fear. God is no respecter of persons. He doesn’t play favorites. We are all candidates for that boundless love and supply.

But, if I believe my source is money, fame, or currying the favor of influential people, I may chase after and even get those things, but I will gain the fear of losing them, and lose the source of true power for fighting all fear in the process.

What you want is always available to you, depending on what you want: if you want wisdom, discernment, provision, protection, favor– the things God can provide, they are yours merely by spending time with him and asking. You are enough, because time spent with him transforms both you and your circumstances.

God is simplicity itself.

Emmet Fox