Have you ever fought your heart?
Nervous… I have no idea why, but that was what I felt last weekend. Maybe it’s worry of the project that I have to complete in The Courage to Create program. Maybe it’s a worry as I was working on the new theme on my blog. Will it show indecisiveness? Or instability? Will anyone unsubscribe? And so on. Maybe it’s a fear of failure, or maybe… it’s also a fear of success.
“When you cease doubting, you have stopped moving forward”
~Paulo Coelho (Brida)
The fact is… it is a part of success journey, a journey towards your dream. It should have happened to you, unless you have stopped following your dream. And it was something that Paulo Coelho also shared in his book, The Alchemist.
One boy, a shepherd, gave up all his sheep to pursue his dream to find his treasure. He found his dream girl in the journey, but he also decided to leave her for a moment to pursue his dream to find the treasure accompanied by the Alchemist.
Understand your treasonous heart
On the journey, his heart turned wild. He couldn’t sleep because of it. And he disliked his heart for it; he even said that his heart is treasonous. He didn’t want to listen to it and he decided to put it aside. The alchemist told him to understand his heart instead. Understand them so that it will not become a threat or unexpected blow later on.
Isn’t that the same as what we often experience? We often live our life without listening to what is inside us. The program I joined, The Courage to Create really helped me to understand me better. I guess it’s really a benefit of understanding your heart, your fear, and what has been controlling you so far.
Your heart’s confession
The boy managed to understand his heart, and here is what the boy’s heart said,
“Even though I complain sometimes, it’s because I’m the heart of a person, and people’s hearts are that way. People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don’t deserve them, or that they’ll be unable to achieve them. We, their hearts become fearful just thinking of loved ones who go away forever, or of moments that could have been good, but weren’t, or of treasures that might have been found but were forever hidden in the sands. Because, when these things happen, we suffer terribly.”
~Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist)
That does happen to me… this heart is so fearful, and its confidence is gone. It is afraid that it will suffer because of the pursuit. It misses its comfort zone, and loses what it enjoyed doing. And here is what we all need to realise…
It’s okay, sweet heart!
“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.”
~Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist)
What an encouragement! That statement really soothes my anxiety. “Do not fear!” that is the statement that Jesus said many times in Bible. Why? Because it is true, fear petrified you, fear held you back from achieving your dream, and worse of all, fear actually made you suffered. Even worse than the suffering you’re about to feel, which sometimes is not even there at all.
Deeper down in your heart…
What is deeper inside your heart? Your heart turned bad, because of you! It is so scared now, all because of you! It happened to speak to you to follow your dream, but your fear made you immobile, stay at the place where you are. Here is another confession of a heart…
“So, we, their hearts, speak more and more softly. We never stop speaking out, but we begin to hope that our words won’t be heard: we don’t want people to suffer because they don’t follow their hearts.”
~Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist)
That’s what our hearts do, it stops speaking about our dream and vision, after all the disappointments we faced in our life. In fact, they stopped telling us to follow our dream; they knew that they will suffer because of that. Your heart might always be supporting you, but instead of pushing you toward your goal, it will stop over the time. If you don’t do anything about it, your heart will turn its back against you. It will ask you to stop your journey, to save both you and your heart from suffering.
The reward
Interestingly, the reward is more than just the goal and dream you achieved. As what this blog all about, it is also about your happiness in success journey. The reward is also in the journey itself. What is it? Here is a closing quote from Paulo Coelho, hopefully will inspire you to follow your dream.
“And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.”
~Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist)
In the journey,
Robert
Hello and welcome! I am Robert, sharing with you articles in personal management and personal development. Check out the 
12 Comments
Ari Koinuma
on 11th Sep, 08 05:09pm
Robert,
That was a magnificent post! Beautifully written and it gets to the heart of the matter. Wow!
I can so relate to what you’re saying. In my heart, I wrestle with my self-doubt every single day. I don’t know why we acquire the fear of success — perhaps maybe because once you start hoping, then you’re opening yourself up to the possibility of failure? Yet, the only failure happens from giving up — realizing a dream is and will always be possible as long as you don’t give up.
I know for me that music is my dream of dreams. Working on OBV is much easier than my music because it is not my most important dream — I can stop and delete the web site and will not feel the pain I do of not being able to make music. But yet that’s precisely where I have the road block, I constantly put myself in situations preventing me from giving everything to it.
Anyway, this is an important post that many people should read. I Dugg and Stumbled, in hope that more people will read this.
ari
Aart Hilal
on 11th Sep, 08 08:09pm
Hello!
I’m a big fan of Paulo Coelho! You will love this! He’s the first best-selling
author to be distributing for free his works on his blog:
http://www.paulocoelhoblog.com
Have a nice day!
Aart
Robert A.
on 12th Sep, 08 10:09pm
Ari, thanks for the message. Thanks for sharing what you face everyday as well. Each of us have a doubt to face everyday, but isn’t that the proof that we are growing? Thanks for the dugg and stumble. Glad you enjoy the post as much as I do.
All the best, Ari! Keep growing, and smiling =)
Robert
Alex Kay
on 13th Sep, 08 08:09am
“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.”
Magnificent quote Robert. Love the post!
Alex
rummuser
on 15th Sep, 08 05:09pm
Robert, I congratulate you on a very touching post. I can identify with your comments. None of us are saints. All of us have to go through this process of self doubt and over come our fears. That is what life is all about.
rummusers last blog post..A Sales Representative’s Dilemma.
Robert A.
on 15th Sep, 08 11:09pm
Alex, and Rummy
Thanks for the comment! I agree, each of us have our own fight that we have to face.
Robert
Glen Allsopp
on 16th Sep, 08 12:09pm
Great post, the one thing I wonder is if our ‘heart’ actually tells us to do things, or at least gives us a desire to do things. After all, it’s not like somebody says ‘listen to your kidney, what is it telling you’.
I think the feelings we think are coming from our heart are just another mind activity and linked to feelings of needing or lacking. just a thought
Glen Allsopps last blog post..Create Your Own Reality in 6 Steps
janelle
on 16th Sep, 08 12:09pm
I loved the post, Robert- one of the most difficult things we can do is face our fears. Most people let fear rule their lives, allowing it to hinder them. When I was in the police department, there was a saying about how you should be nice to everyone because you never know how far someone is to being pushed over the edge. The point is, we all have our own personal battles to fight and fears to overcome. All we can do is try to be courageous and kind. Thanks for this post!
janelles last blog post..I Want My Money Back!
Karl - Your Work Happiness Matters
on 18th Sep, 08 07:09pm
We are afraid to follow our heart for fear of failure. This is natural, but it’s up to us to create a dialog with this fear and understand it’s true nature. Is this fear grounded in. If we are worried about what other people think, this we can overcome. If it is grounded in our fear of not being good enough then why is this there and how can we overcome this obstical.
Great article. We need to learn to be who we are and trust that our energy will be returned.
Karl – Your Work Happiness Matterss last blog post..Active Relaxation
John Halderman
on 19th Sep, 08 04:09am
Our reluctance to face our fear is based on our natural human desire to feel good. For this reason we automatically aviod discomfort which fear creates. Only when we learn to be ok with the discomfort of the fear, we have generated, can we allow it to just be rather than act to aviod it. Then we can face it and see what is truly involved. Our aviodance only masks the reality and prevents us from learning and moving on.
John Haldermans last blog post..Your Brain Stores Memories and Recalls With The Same Neurons
Eva White
on 24th Sep, 08 08:09am
It holds true for me as well. All the time I am about to begin something new I start getting butterflies in my stomach. Then I am plagued by indecision over imminent decisions. I guess when you have a lot riding on something it is natural to be nervous, the key is to overcome it!
Eva Whites last blog post..Amazing Home Theaters
Robert A.
on 24th Sep, 08 08:09am
Hi Eva
Welcome! and thanks for the comment. We both the same, we are nervous when facing something new. But as always, courage is not the absence of fear isn’t it? Courage is the action we do even with the fear.
@Glen, Janelle, Karl, and John.
I guess it’s a bit late response. Just wanna let you know that I really appreciate your comments.
All the best in your success journey!
Robert