NO FEAR, NO SURPRISE,NO HESITATION, NO DOUBT

Where does this come from? It’s from a seventeenth-century samurai warrior. This was his four-point key to successful living—and swordsmanship.

No Fear

There should be nothing in this life that you are afraid of. If there is, you might need to do some work on overcoming that fear. Here I have to confess to a certain fear of heights. I avoid high places if I can. Recently, owing to leaky gutters, I had to crawl out on our roof—three floors up with a very long drop on one side. I gritted my teeth and kept repeating, “No fear, no fear, no fear,” until the job was done. Oh yes, and of course I didn’t look down. Whatever your fear, face it head on and defeat it. 

No Surprise

Life seems to be full of surprises, doesn’t it? You’re going along swimmingly and suddenly something huge rears up ahead of you. But if you look carefully, there were clues all along the
way that it was going to happen. No surprise there then. Whatever your situation now, it is going to change. No surprises there. So why does life seem to surprise us then? Because we are asleep half the time. Wake up, and nothing can sneak up on you.

No Hesitation

Weigh the odds and then just get on with it. If you hang back, the opportunity will have passed. If you spend too long thinking, you’ll never make a move. Once we have looked at the options, we make a choice and then go for it. That’s the secret.No hesitation means not waiting around for other people to help out or make up our minds for us. No hesitation means if there is a certain inevitability about a situation, then just throw yourself in head first and enjoy the ride. If there is nothing to be done, then waiting doesn’t help.

No Doubt

Once you have made your mind up about something, don’t go over it again and again. Stop thinking and enjoy—relax and let go. Stop worrying. Tomorrow will come along as certainly as it can. There is no doubt about life. It just is. Be confident. Be committed. Be sure of yourself. Once you have committed yourself to a set course, a path, a plan, then follow it through. Have no doubt it was the right thing to do and no doubt that you will succeed. Get on with it and trust your judgment completely.