We live our lives bound in fear. Afraid of new things, afraid of taking chances, afraid of speaking in public, afraid of singing in public.

How do we convince ourselves that anything new will be harmful to us? Perhaps we are afraid of failure. But, maybe what we are most afraid of the new demands that success will place on us.

Since our thoughts are on our private property, only we can know what goes on in our head. We speak to ourselves with words that are most meaningful to us. We dramatize and even exaggerate the effects of any decision we fear to make.

All human beings make assumptions, pass judgement and justify their own behaviour. But in doing so we create thought patterns that become habitual. These thought patterns replay themselves each time we meet something that is similar to our previous experiences.

These repeating thought programs give a sense of comfort in knowing that we are on somewhat familiar ground. They make each new day seem to be similar to previous days. Not too much change and in full knowledge that you will be able to count on your previous experience to handle it.

But change is inevitable. Each new day is after all a new day and brings with it experiences that are different. Each new day brings us closer to old age and our inevitable death. It is only in our minds that there is a connection between yesterday and today. Yesterday is just a memory.

All this to say that we are well equipped as human beings to deal with change. We simply ignore the differences and behave as though we know the solutions to everything. In the worst case we assume failure and in most cases we assume that everything will remain the same. That is, that it will match our previous experiences of success and failure.

That is where our memories come into play. We remember our success and dread our failures. We flash through thoughts, words and images, that either are encouraging us to take chances or to fear change.

This is happening in our mind. The mind in our heads. So it is up to us to control the words and images. And, we can control where we choose to focus our thinking efforts. If we have made it a habit of focusing on failure, then that is where our minds will take us each time we are presented with new problems and new decisions.

Or, we can focus our attention on what is new and different and accept that change is inevitable. Changing any habit requires effort and requires that you replace an old habit with a new one. We can focus our thoughts on the pleasure that success will bring us. Thus making this a new habit that will become our new automatic focus.