I feel caught between my old life and my new one, John confessed in our coaching session. He reached into his pocket, took out his wallet, and handed me his business card. It was loaded with telephone, cell, and pager numbers, along with several e-mail addresses and a website. For many years I was very successful in the oil business, he explained. I had vast amounts of money, prestige, and power. Then I got sick of the whole scene and quit. I just walked away from it all; I just wanted to clear my head and find some inner peace.

I felt content for a while, John went on, but then my money began to dry up and I started to panic. I had let go of all of my security and I felt like a trapeze artist flying through the air without a safety net. It was really scary. Then a few weeks ago, I received a phone call from a friend in the oil business, offering me a job. I don't want to go back, but I don't know how I am going to pay my bills.

I considered John's situation and asked him, If you were not afraid about money, what would you be doing?

John's face softened and his eyes lit up. I would study holistic healing, he told me. I would travel. I would meditate. I would spend time in nature. I would connect with my spirit and pass along to others what I learned.

Can you trust that if you are true to yourself, the universe will provide for you? I asked him.

John thought for quite a while. I could see he was moving through significant inner territory. Then he answered firmly, Yes, I would. John's eyes looked resolute. He had tapped into a bank of faith.

Then you are in a perfect position to manifest what you want, I told him.

A week later, I received a phone call from John. He was laughing. You're never going to believe what happened! he exclaimed. After our session I went to visit my father, who has never approved of my lifestyle. We had a good talk and I told him what I wanted to do. Without saying a word, my dad walked to his study and came back with a check for me. When I read the check I was stunned - it was enough to sustain me for a year.

During the next six months, John took yoga teacher's training, became certified as a hypnotherapist, and attended the Mastery Training. Then he went off to Nepal, where he meditated in a Tibetan monastery. Later John came to visit me, and he bore no resemblance to the man who had been struggling. He looked happy. Then he returned to Nepal where, I am told, he is meditating peacefully.

The force of your personal evolution, speaking to you through your spirit, is moving you toward the fulfillment of your dreams. Your role is to move with the strongest energy you feel. If, out of fear or insecurity, you try to hold on to something that no longer serves you, you will feel constricted and unfulfilled. If, on the other hand, you give more power and attention to your destiny rather than your history, doors will open in amazing ways.

John had a strong intention to follow his dreams, but his fear was throwing up a thick smoke screen that obscured his vision. When he tapped into his faith, his fear dissipated. Fear and faith cannot coexist in the same mind or place. The antidote to fear is not to push hard against it or buck your way through it. The answer is to tap into a deeper knowing than the level that fear is speaking from. That deep place always exists inside you; your role is to relax into it.

There is a profound difference between fearlessness and courage. Fearlessness means that you are not afraid, so you go ahead and do what you want. Courage means that you feel fear, but you move ahead anyway. That movement is not accomplished through sheer will - it is accomplished through heart. The word courage derives from the French word coeur, which means heart. So the answer to fear is not force; it is heart.

John's dad has a checkbook, and so does yours. Consider the universe your loving parent who is happy to support you to live the life you would sincerely choose. Then you will not have to make compromises and do something you detest. If a man's son asked him for a loaf of bread, would he give him a stone? Just as you would answer your child's need, your spiritual source will answer yours. You can ask my friend John, but you might have to go to Nepal to find him.

The above article is an excerpt from Alan Cohen's extraordinary new prosperity book Relax into Wealth: How to Get More by Doing Less. To order the book, attend Alan's Life Mastery Training in Fiji this March, or to receive Alan's free daily inspirational quote and monthly newsletter, visit www.alancohen.com, email info@alancohen.com, or phone 1-800-568-3079.