Neophobia is the irrational fear of new things or experiences. We all have this tendency. No matter how much you think of yourself as a total risk-taker and lover of new things, you will feel this tendency in some areas of your life, I guarantee it.

The reason I can guarantee it, is that we are all subject to two other tendencies:

• We only do what we think is possible to do. The possibility of some actions is simply so out of reach of our imagination, that we will not even consider it. Before laser assisted eye surgery to correct short-sightedness and other refractive eye defects, I am sure that many thought they would have to wear glasses or contact lenses for the rest of their lives.

From a personal development point of view frugality as a lifestyle is flawed. It is not flawed in the sense that it does not work, but it is flawed because it makes you aim your focus at the wrong things.

All my life I have suffered from the consequences of lack of patience. I want my projects to be finished yesterday and get stressed when I am in a situation where I am unable to work on the projects that I find important, even if the situation is just short and temporary. It also means that when I loose my patience, I risk loosing my motivation as well - it can seem like there is no point in continued efforts if the project will not be finished anytime soon - but that mode of thinking is exactly what causes impatience to decrease your likelihood of success in life. In this article I will explain what I consider to be the anti-impatience mantra : “success comes in chunks”.

I think most people live in a world of shoulds : You should eat healthy food, you should not smoke, you should go to work every day, you should not hurt peoples feelings, you should love thy neighbour, etc. It all reminds me of the Henry Thoreau quote “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” as all these shoulds are present exactly because the actions are not something that comes naturally to most people and probably conflicts with their desires and passion.