What are you afraid of?
Here’s an exercise the best-selling motivational author Tim Ferriss believes in for overcoming personal and professional obstacles. It’s called fear-setting — kind of like goal-setting, and related.
Say your goal is to go back to school. Your list of fears might look something like this:
- I’ll run out of money and get into debt
- I won’t be very good at my new career choice
- I’ll be too old by the time I’m finished
Now, create a column called “prevent.” Write down an idea for either preventing or dealing with each problem. For instance, could you decrease your expenses?
Finally, create a “repair” column. Even if your worst-case scenario fears come true, you’ll have a plan.
For instance, if you get into debt, you’ll make a plan to repay it. If you aren’t good at your new career choice, you have a Plan B for how to parlay your fresh education.
Exercises like this that can help people get past their fears and closer to their goals.
