{"id":21595,"date":"2020-12-20T20:15:19","date_gmt":"2020-12-21T00:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=21595"},"modified":"2021-01-03T19:18:54","modified_gmt":"2021-01-03T23:18:54","slug":"fear-setting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/fear-setting\/","title":{"rendered":"Fear Setting: Face Your Dreams by Defining Them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is fear setting? How can fear setting help you understand your goals and priorities<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fear setting is the process of working through your fears by defining them honestly. This ability can help you see your fears rationally, and then take calculated risks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more about fear setting and how it works. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Face Your Fears<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The main thing that stops people from living the 4HWW lifestyle is fear. Fear of failure<\/a> and the unknown are paralyzing, and facing these fears is so intimidating that most people would rather be unhappy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, there\u2019s a less-recognizable subset of fear of the unknown that affects many of us\u2014optimistic denial.<\/strong> If your job isn\u2019t absolutely awful, then you pretend it\u2019ll get better or pretend you\u2019ll get a raise and the money will make everything better. You\u2019ll keep on pretending instead of doing something life-changing that would actually make you happier. To figure out if you\u2019ve fallen prey to optimistic denial, think back to a month or a year ago. Are things better now than they were then? If they\u2019re not, there\u2019s no reason to expect them to improve over another year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFear Setting\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The best way to work through your fears is to define them, or \u201cfear-set.\u201d Once you have a better handle on what exactly you\u2019re worried about, it becomes less frightening.<\/strong> Also, once you\u2019ve quantified your fears into specific scenarios with fear setting, you\u2019ll be able to see ways to avoid negative consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are six questions to ask yourself<\/a> when fear setting. They aren\u2019t simply a mental exercise; actually write out your answers. Go through the questionnaire twice, once while thinking of something you\u2019d like to do, and the second time while thinking about quitting your job. The questions are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. What is the worst-case scenario?<\/strong> On a scale of 1-10, one being the lowest, what would be the permanent cost of your actions? How likely is it that the very worst would happen?<\/p>\n\n\n\n