Tim Ferriss has quickly become one of my favorite authors, podcast hosts, entrepreneurs, and all around cool dude.
One of the things I like most about Tim is his candor and willingness to be ridiculously unpretentious.
In this TED Talk, Tim shares his recipe for avoiding self-destruction rather than give us another highlight reel on success. During his research, Tim stumbled upon the concept of “stoicism.”
The central ancient teaching of stoicism, founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early 3rd century BC, is that the world is unpredictable so we should learn to be steadfast, strong, and nonreactive at all times. Stoicism has been practiced by kings, presidents, artists, writers, entrepreneurs, and more.
To help us practice stoicism, Tim Ferriss created a written exercise called “fear-setting.” It consists of three pages and is super simple.
1) Page one: What if I…? This is where you list whatever you fear (for example, asking someone out on a date, quitting a job, asking for a raise, launching a new product in your business, etc.). You write down 10–20 of the worst things that could happen in the first column. Next is the “prevention” section where you write down ideas that could minimize the possibilities of the crappy thing happening. The last column is called “repair.” Here you write down ways you would repair the damage if the worst-case scenario actually happened.
The overall concept here on the first page is encouraging you to ask yourself: “Has anyone in the entire world, perhaps not even as smart as I am, ever figured this out?” Chances are the answer is YES.
2) Page two: Ask yourself the following question: “What might be the benefits of an attempt or partial success?” This is looking at the upside if you attempted the thing you fear. The benefits might be to build confidence, learn something new, learn what doesn’t work, etc.
3) Page three: This part—the Cost of Inaction—is key. It explores the tremendous cost of doing nothing. So ask yourself, “If I avoid this thing, what might my life look like in 6 months, 12 months, or 3 years?” Tim recommends you get really detailed here, emotionally, financially, mentally, physically, etc.
That’s it. And then look at the entire scenario on a scale of 1–10 (with 10 be the highest): What is the cost of doing it versus not doing it? Tim has traced back all of his greatest wins and setbacks to this exercise of fear-setting at least once every quarter. You might realize that the cost of doing something is too high, but you didn’t dismiss it without first placing it under a microscope by doing this exercise.
Time closed his TED Talk with a quote by Jerzy Gregorek that I really liked: “Easy Choices, Hard Life. Hard Decisions. Easy Life.”
Thank you, Tim Ferriss, for sharing your insight so generously.
Go. Be. Stoic.