Fear Setting Template (Notion)

You are paralyzed by the fear and not able to take a decision? And it's making you confused?

Fear not.

This exercise by Tim Ferriss helps us to properly make decision based on it's merits and risk.

Risks aren't that scary once you took them.

After you have a face to face with the thing you fear the most we will lead to conclusion that 

Is this what he had been so afraid of?

Power of Pessimism.

— Benjamin Disraeli, former British Prime Minister

To do or not to do? To try or not to try? Most people will vote no, whether they consider themselves brave or not. Uncertainty and the prospect of failure can be very scary noises in the shadows. Most people will choose unhappiness over uncertainty.

Conquering Fear = Defining Fear

“Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with coarse and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: “Is this the condition that I feared?”

-Seneca

As soon as you cut through the vague unease and ambiguous anxiety by defining your nightmare, the worst-case scenario, you will not be worried of it anymore.

Realize that on a scale of 1–10, 1 being nothing and 10 being permanently life-changing, your so-called worst-case scenario might have a temporary impact of 3 or 4. I believe this is true of most people and most would-be “holy sh*t, my life is over” disasters.

On the other hand, if you realize your best-case scenario, or even a probable-case scenario, it would easily have a permanent 9 or 10 positive life-changing effect.

Uncovering Fear Disguised as Optimism

“There’s no difference between a pessimist who says, ‘Oh, it’s hopeless, so don’t bother doing anything,’ and an optimist who says, ‘Don’t bother doing anything, it’s going to turn out fine any way.’ Either way, nothing happens.”

— Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia

Fear comes in many forms, and we usually don’t call it by its four-letter name. Fear itself is quite fear-inducing. Most intelligent people in the world dress it up as something else: optimistic denial.

Most who avoid quitting their jobs entertain the thought that their course will improve with time or increases in income. This seems valid and is a tempting hallucination when a job is boring or uninspiring instead of pure hell. Pure hell forces action, but anything less can be endured with enough clever rationalization.

Do you really think it will improve or is it wishful thinking and an excuse for inaction? If you were confident in improvement, would you really be questioning things so? Generally not. This is fear of the unknown disguised as optimism.

Are you better off than you were one year ago, one month ago, or one week ago?

If not, things will not improve by themselves. If you are kidding yourself, it is time to stop and plan for a jump. Barring any James Dean ending, your life is going to be LONG. Nine to five for your working lifetime of 40–50 years is a long-ass time if the rescue doesn’t come. About 500 months of solid work.

How many do you have to go? It’s probably time to cut your losses.

So if you are afraid to make a decision and are confused whether to take the jump or not this exercise will help you evaluate whether you have to make it or not.

I hope this exercise helps you take the decision which you have been fearing to take thinking of worst circumstances.

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