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Kris Explores

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Fear Setting

I find fear setting more useful when I work through one fear, then take a five-minute action. Doing the whole exercise at once has sometimes left me overwhelmed and more inclined to avoid the issue.

This is my adaptation of Tim Ferriss’s fear-setting exercise, developed through repeated personal use. For a big decision, I find it helpful to split the writing into a few sessions and sleep on it.

I recommend writing by hand and taking time to notice what comes up.

My Version: Approachable Fear Setting

  1. What do you want that brings up fear and avoidance/delay?
    • Is the want a clear outcome?
  2. Approach and welcome the feeling, let it play out in your awareness. Some helpful steps:
    1. Start with grounding in bodily awareness, watch the sensations that construct the feeling first
    2. Then label the feeling (probably fear here). What particular flavor of fear is it?
    3. Validate the feeling, accept it as it is.
    4. Watch the intensity rise and fall
    5. Create safety, can you see how the feeling is a safe messenger and actually helpful?
  3. What is the fear telling you, what would it look like if the source of the fear became real?
  4. If a scenario came up, how likely is it to happen?
  5. What is the impact after 2 weeks to 6 months? Would you even notice?
  6. What can you influence to prevent the scenario?
  7. What could you do to reduce and repair damage if it did happen?
  8. How does the fear feel now? How does it compare to before?
  9. What is one thing you can start now worth doing to get your outcome?
    • How can you start for 5 minutes? Decide and act now.

Other Versions

Ferriss’s exercise and TED talk explore three questions:

  1. What could go wrong, and how could you prevent or repair it?
  2. What might you gain from an attempt or partial success?
  3. What would inaction cost over the coming months and years?

WOOP (Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan) is a related approach: picture a desired outcome, identify an obstacle, and plan a response. A randomized study of 34 anesthesiology residents found more self-reported goal-directed study time in the WOOP group than in the goal-setting group during a one-month rotation. That study tested WOOP, not this exercise.

Other Notes

Curiosity is the most reliable way I’ve found to move toward something I fear.