Welcome to TLJ – Tonterias Las Justas. Your weekly dose of common sense to live better. Express sessions (less than 15 mins) discussing sex, money, spirituality, relationships and some current events. Very practical and not politically correct.

To broaden our knowledge from last week’s chat, today we will cover the element that most often limits our capacity to think: fear! We will close with steps to strengthen our critical thinking.

Fear is a basic emotion designed to keep us save from harm. Between generalized stress and the fear that we drink daily, it’s no surprise that we increasingly think with less criterion. Fear has many faces and sometimes it masks itself as rage, sadness and other emotions. To have a wider framework of it, we are going to utilize the description of the six fears from the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. I strongly encourage its reading, possibly one of the bibles in the self-help space, along with PsychoCybernetics. We will touch on both in future episodes. In this book, Napoleon Hill identifies six basic fears that limit a person’s potential.

1.   Fear of poverty

2.   Fear of criticism

3.   Fear of illness

4.   Fear of the loss of love

5.   Fear of old age

6.   Fear of death.

Curiously enough, fears represent deficits, poorly managed uncertainties and ignorance. Fear’s power is extraordinary because it leads us to the opposite action of what would in fact be helpful in a determined situation. Furthermore, fear provokes an unrivaled focus which only magnifies the element provoking the fear. Everything that you focus on grows, so choose well.

Keep in mind that fears are nothing more than learned systems of belief. If you learned something erroneous, you can update that belief with a new one.

Let’s dive into the details, starting with the fear of poverty.

Poverty not only refers to the economic elements that it clearly includes, rather it goes further to explain a mentality of lack. You’ve likely seen it on several occasions, the typical person with sufficient means, but stingy or always worried about losing their resources. They save their money as if there wasn’t sufficient for all or worst yet, as if they wouldn’t be capable of making more of it. This fear is fundamental, and it affects all of us up to a certain degree if we don’t treat it. According to Hill, the symptoms are indifference (or lack of ambition), indecision, doubt, worry, excessive precaution, and procrastination.

Continuing with the fear of criticism. From my point of view, one of the most devastating for a full life. Criticism is intrinsic to humans for the simple fact of analysis. At times, this criticism can be communicated in a destructive manner, of course, but it depends above all on how the receiver decides to interpret it. It seems as the most devastating to me because, regardless of what you do, it will always be subject of criticism from one group or another. If you fail to do what you want for fear of what others may say, all of your life will be subject to the expectations of others. To say it another way, to live for others, in the worst sense of the expression. Symptoms of this fear: shyness, lack of serenity, little personality, inferiority complex, extravagance, lack of initiative or lack of ambition. 

Now on to the fear of illness. It is natural to want to avoid ill health but fearing it will do no more than lower your natural defenses making it easier and likely to fall ill. Remember, what you focus on, grows.

Symptoms include self-suggestions, hypochondria, poor adjustments to physical forms (this fear often times interferes with adequate physical exercise), susceptible, lack of moderation (seen in the habit of using alcohol or narcotics for aches...