Tim Ferris is an author, podcaster, and entrepreneur who is most famous for his book, The Four-Hour Work Week. In Ferris's Ted Talk, he shares an exercise that helps control the fear and anxiety that comes from taking risks.
Ferris created this exercise as a result of his struggles with bipolar depression and 70+ hour work weeks. Ferris's emotional problems came to a peak when the girl whom he thought he would marry left him because he was obsessed with work.
Ferris decided that he needed to change his life. He thought that a vacation would help alleviate the stress from his busy schedule. But Ferris was so afraid that his business would fail without him that he was reluctant to take a break.
While wrestling with this decision, Ferris came across the philosophical teachings of Stoicism. The following quote from the Stoic Roman philosopher, Seneca the Younger, had a profound impact on his life:
"We suffer more often in imagination than in reality." - Seneca the Younger
What is Stoicism?
Stoicism is a school of Roman philosophy that started around the 3rd Century BC. Even though this is an ancient philosophy, it's method of thinking is timeless.
Ferris describes Stoicism as "an operating system for thriving in high-stress environments." In Ryan Holiday's article on Stocisim, he says that the goal of Stoicism is "helping us overcome destructive emotions and act on what can be acted upon." Stoicism helps us overcome suffering by teaching us to focus on what we can control rather than things that we cannot control. By focusing on changing the things that we can control, we decrease our emotional reactivity.
Ferris decided to create an exercise that would utilize the principles of Stocicsim to alleviate the fear, stress, and anxiety that come from taking risks. It was this exercise that ultimately improved his life. He decided to take the risk and step away from his work to travel around the world. It was this experience that became this basis for this best-selling book, The Four-Hour Work Week.
The Fear-Setting Excercise
The goal of Fear-Setting is to apply rational analysis to a problem that is scaring us. By imagining the worst-case scenario in minute detail, we see that we can take steps to either prevent the situation from happening or we can take steps to repair the situation.
The Fear-Setting exercise is a three-step process. To begin, you will need to need three pieces of paper and a pen. On each page, you will complete one of the steps.
Page 1: Define the worst-case scenario and come up with possible solutions.
The first step involves imagining the worst thing that could result from taking a risk. It also encourages us to come up with ways to prevent or repair the situation.
Divide the paper into three columns like the example below and answer the following questions.
Questions
Define: Get precise on what is scaring you about taking this particular risk. What are the worst things that could happen? If you are afraid of failing, what does failure look like?
Prevent: What steps can you take to ensure the situation does not happen? Focus on the things that you can do to take control of the situation.
Repair: If your fears come true, what steps can you take to fix the situation?
Page 2: What are the possible benefits of success?
The second part of the exercise is to imagine the benefits of success. On your second page of paper, answer the following question: What sort of experiences or rewards could you have if you took the risk to accomplish your goal?
We often let our fears prevent us from pursuing our dreams. We imagine all the possible ways in which we can fail. But how often do we imagine how it would feel if we succeeded?
Page 3: What is the cost of inaction?
The third and final part of the exercise is to consider the negative results of inaction. Imagine yourself 10 years from now looking back on this decision. With the third sheet of paper, answer the following question: If you let fear make this choice for you, will you regret not taking the risk?
Conclusion
This simple exercise alleviates stress from any situation. I find that rationally assessing a situation stops my imagination from going to dark places.
As someone who struggles with anxiety, this exercise has helped me overcome many challenges and fears in my personal and professional life. The power of this exercise is that it teaches me that my emotions are loud and powerful, yet they are often illogical and unfounded.
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