Do what you love, and the effort will not seem like work for it will be a labor of love.  Approach life with joy and imagination, and one cannot help but find success.   

These words of wisdom, or some version of them, may be found in writings all over the world.  So why is it that we human beings take so long in learning to apply such wisdom in our own lives?  Is it because we think we know better, or is it because we cannot bring ourselves to fully believe it in the first place? 

What is it that holds us back?  The answer can only be our inner fear; fear that we will fail and our effort will be wasted, fear that we will fail and appear foolish in the attempt, or fear that we will fail and those who told us we would not succeed will now step up to tell us, "I told you so."  And then, of course, there is that biggest fear of all -- that we will fail and so be unable to have the thing we most wish for and dream about. 

While it is easy to say, "Conquer your fear," it seems much harder to actually do something about it.  So when that Tasmanian Devil in your gut is busily chewing on your insides, what can you do? 

The answer is closer and easier than you might think.  If you want to conquer your fear, tap into your creative imagination.  Imagination is the key to creating anything for ourselves, whether it is a new outfit, a new career, a new attitude, or a new way of life.   Think about it.  Every new idea anyone has ever had began with a spark in that person's mind.  And imagination is that spark. 

How do we know it is fear that is holding us back, rather than the myriad practical considerations (or excuses) we have lined up to prevent our ever taking that first step off our present path and onto a new one?  It is fear, and I can prove it. 

Robert H. Schuller formed the test when he asked, "What great thing would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?"  Think about that for a moment.  If you knew you could not fail, what things would you immediately get busy doing?  Change careers, start your own business, complete your education, finish your thesis and actually get that degree, start a family, end world hunger, clean up the mess in the Gulf, establish a world peace organization, or what?   See how fast the ideas come once the fear of failure is removed?

What else might you do, if you knew in advance that you could not fail and success was assured?  Take off those extra pounds, stop smoking once and for all, mend your broken family relationships, call Oprah and ask to appear on her show as a guest speaker on the topic of conquering fear, and what else?  The possibilities seem endless at this point, don't they?  And they also seem like something else -- truly possible for a change. 

When we have confidence in our own efforts, then anything we can imagine for ourselves feels possible in that same way.  The secret is that this principle actually works.  All it takes is exercising the imagination to see it clearly in our mind's eye. 

"I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours," Henry David Thoreau tells us.  His writings are filled with insights into how we may tap into our imagination for guidance, for healing, for inspiration, as well as for the courage of our convictions. 

How does one connect with creative imagination, especially when we have allowed it to lie dormant for lack of exercising it very often?  Step outside your normal routine and place yourself in the path of connection.  "An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day," Thoreau reminds us.  Start there.  Get up a little earlier than you usually do, and give yourself the blessing of having a quiet walk to start your day.  Before the noise and jumble and hurly-burly of the kids, the traffic, and the job get in your mind's way, take some solitary time for yourself and let your mind wander where it will.  Ponder the question of what you truly want to do while your feet do their work.  The answers that come may surprise you. 

And while you are walking, remember something else that Henry David Thoreau said, "It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see." 

Be strong and of good courage as you set your feet upon your joyful path to success.  Check out Phoebe's column, titled Maintaining Your Visionary Momentum