You either live your dreams or you live your fears. This statement from the
introduction of bestselling author Dr. Dennis Kimbro’s 2014 book The Wealth Choice that made
me stop and think. Even though his book is an excellent resource full of dynamic success secrets
of 1,000 Black millionaires, I thought about how the book’s strategies can also apply to anyone’s
life whether they are a millionaire or work at Walmart. For example, the quote about living
your fear was a simple statement but one that made me take a step back and look at my life.

I wondered how many times I have lived my fear. Like so many of you, I know I can
always rely on the truth in the scriptures like 2 Timothy 1:7 – “For God has not given us a spirit
of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” However, even though we embrace the
truth of that and other scriptures, we still find ourselves fearful. So how do you overcome that
kind of fear?

According to Dr. Kimbro and The Wealth Choice, one way to overcome fear about your
finances is to change your mindset about money. If you have a poor mentality, you will be poor
much like Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” Having faith is a big
part of overcoming any fear, but you have to change your thinking first. I was talking to a friend
about that same thing a few weeks ago. We were sharing about life goals. Even though we had
very different goals, there was a common factor: once we’d made up our minds to achieve our
goals then it was easier to achieve them.

For instance, for years I struggled going back to school to work on another degree. It
took me nearly 4 years to decide to go back. Why? There were friends, co-workers and even
my supervisor who encouraged me to go back to school. I didn’t want to do it because I
couldn’t wrap my mind around having to read tons of books, do homework again and pay tuition.

Even though I had moments where I convinced myself that I could do it, I would always go back
to the mindset where I just couldn’t see myself going back to school.

However, one day I had one of those “moments.” I asked myself what was the real reason
why I didn’t want to go back to school. It boiled down to one thing: I was afraid. Afraid that I
would fail and afraid that I would never be able to overcome the fear of failing. Things really
changed once I changed my mind about the fear of failure and decided that I would rather live
my life knowing that I tried and failed than not having tried at all. In other words, once I freed
my mind, my faith followed. And following my faith took me on an amazing journey where I
took a few detours but eventually made it to my destination of completing my PhD.

Shewanda Riley is the author of the Essence best-seller “Love Hangover: Moving From Pain
to Purpose after a Relationship Ends” and “Writing to the Beat of God’s Heart: A book of
Prayers for Writers.” Follow her on Twitter at @shewanda.