There is nothing wrong with having some fear. Sometimes it holds you back from doing something, or even worse, anything. In contrast, the easiest way to eliminate your fears is to start working on them. Something that helped me in getting started was a method that Tim Ferriss described in this video.
Read how I approach fear-setting below the video.
Inspired by this video, I do fear setting by following these six steps:
- What is the worst thing that could happen?
Imagine how bad it can be. You might want to make it even worse than you initially thought. However, do not get stuck here. Please write it down, and continue. It is a good thing to have multiple bad outcomes envisioned. - Is it preventable?
Do you have the influence to prevent these bad things from happening to you? Or is it out of your control entirely? - Can you easily overturn or repair the bad outcome?
If it happens, is this something you can turn into a positive or a neutral? Is it repairable, or is it when it happened all done, and you cannot do anything about it anymore? - In case it might not be all that bad, what would a more likely favourable scenario look like?
You only looked at how bad things could be. Try to imagine if there can be a bright side. - What are the consequences of not doing it?
Is there something you do not do now? Is it emotionally or physically taking a toll on you? - Repeat this for all your fears.
You will likely become more comfortable with your fears when you have completed this. Sometimes, you might even feel bored since you realise that what you fear and what is real are different things. Though what you have now, at least, listed under items 2 and 3, is a common set of actions to which you can pay attention.
The items often overlap for each of the fears you worked on and will leave you with 3-5 things you can actively work on to keep your fear under your control.
If you want to make it easier for yourself to do this exercise for you, I create a Notion template for you to use:
