Fear Setting: Inaction to Action

Fear setting is a technique developed by Tim Ferriss, a popular author, and entrepreneur. The technique involves identifying and writing down your fears, analyzing their potential consequences, and creating plans to mitigate those consequences. It is a powerful tool designed to help individuals overcome their fears and take action toward their goals.

The phrase "Inaction to Action" is likely a reference to the idea that by addressing our fears, we can overcome the inaction they may cause and take action toward our goals.

Fear can often be paralyzing, preventing us from taking the necessary steps towards achieving our dreams. Fear setting can help us break through this barrier and move forward with confidence. melvabintangg.substack.com

Ferriss' TED Talks are some of the best and most transformative in my life so far. I listen to TED Talks every single day, with a variety of topics, and although I know that I'm not into self-help talks, I have to admit that Ferriss's presentation was exceptional. He explained the art of combating our fear of rejection and failure. It sounds lofty, right?

You may also find a variety of lists to combat your fear, and yet you still delay doing or executing your planning. This is not wrong; perhaps it's because our survival mind wants us to be safe and comfortable in our zone. But now, you need to make some breakthroughs in life by

Let's get back to Ferriss's presentation. We're going to do a writing exercise on fear setting.

Say you have 3 to 5 plans or even dozens of dozens of planning. If you don’t mind, please write all your plans again on the piece of paper. It can be confessing your feelings to your crush, cooking a new recipe to your momin-law, starting your flower business, etc, just writing them all.

Now, follow these steps:

1. Define

Define what your fear is and imagine the worst case of that situation. Say that you want to cook for your friends because you want to start your restaurant business. You are afraid of their expressions towards your food, and it can destroy your self-esteem. Right after that, it possibly can make you cancel your plan to start a restaurant business.

Just be honest about the consequences that you’re imagining. It will give you relief and understanding of your fear. If you’re feeling so low during writing, it’s okay, you can pause for a moments and leave it there. Grab some water and have a walk for a moment. The writing process, especially writing your fears, require a lot of energy.

2. Prevent

In this section, I invite you to create the solution to your fear that’s been written in the previous section. You can imagine the best scenario to delay your fear happen Now, jot down some of your prevention to your fear

Say that you want to cook to your friends but afraid of their expressions. You can ask your mother or you go-to siblings or cousin to taste your food first. Since we are a very unfair being towards our own ideas, it can be helpful to ask your trust one to give some feedbacks.

It’s possible that list can go on and on. Now, you’re in a middle of conquering your fear.

3. Repair

This is the last part of explaining your fear. Imagine that you’d cooked a meal and unfortunately, your friends dislike your meal, what would you do at that moment? Perhaps, you can ask them specific feedback on the meal, you can prepare the questions, and would like to explain the recipe to them, so that they can give you clear feedback. Dang, you get better at your cooking right after that. melvabintangg.substack.com

Source: Tim Ferris's Presentation

You might ask, “What if this scenario left become only a memory? or Will I have an advanced advantage of doing this?” Sometimes, it’s not enough only to conquer the curiosity of our feeling, we need further benefit Okay, now let’s jump into the next part.

Explore the benefit of your action

I often brainstorm whenever I want to decide whether I should do this or not. Basically, I explore physically, emotionally, financially, and mentally. You can add some more categories before taking real action. Spend around 10-15 minutes. Remember, do not press yourself to know all the benefits. If you are satisfied physically and you think that’s enough, you execute that decision. Now, you’re settled with your plan but still a feel lack of confidence. Now, try to imagine the cost of inaction.

Remember that fear setting is a technique designed to help you break through the barrier of fear and move forward with confidence. By breaking down your fears into manageable pieces and developing strategies to overcome them, you can build confidence and take action toward your goals.