I am an Alabama college football fan and have been my whole life. I heard something on TV the other day about an upcoming Alabama game and one of the former Alabama opponents was talking to a current Alabama quarterback . The current Alabama player asked the opponent how he played so spectacularly in a game a couple of years ago, a game that Alabama lost on the last play of the game. The answer he was given – Play Fearlessly!

As I reflected on that I recalled times in my life when I was afraid, or downtrodden and didn’t know what to do. The fear was keeping me from doing anything as my thoughts swirled around. Fear does that to us – it robs our energy, our clarity of thought and can prevent us from taking the steps to overcome it. In coaching school they called this fear a gremlin. It can be a recurring deeply held thought that surfaces in times of stress. Some say it is there to protect us, meaning that if we don’t do anything we won’t be harmed. This gremlin can be a powerful tool that while seemingly protecting us actually holds us back and inhibits us.

Denis Waitley , a noted motivational speaker and writer said:

“It’s not what you think you are that holds you back,

it’s what you think you’re not”

I can certainly see times in my life when this was true. I think most of us have experienced something like this. When you look at what can happen when the fears are discarded and the bright light shines through from within you that you see what you can become.