#422: Fear-Setting: The Most Valuable Exercise I Do Every Month
The Tim Ferriss Show
Tim Ferriss: Bestselling Author, Human Guinea Pig
4.6 • 17.4K Ratings
🗓️ 20 April 2020
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
“We suffer more in imagination than in reality.” — Seneca
I do an exercise called “fear-setting” at least once a quarter, often once a month. It is the most powerful exercise I do.
Fear-setting has produced my biggest business and personal successes, as well as repeatedly helped me to avoid catastrophic mistakes.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
My TED talk, which is what you are listening to, gives you an overview, and the text at tim.blog/ted provides more detail, step-by-step instructions, and real-world examples.
You can watch the TED talk here: https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_ferriss_why_you_should_define_your_fears_instead_of_your_goals
The three exercise slides from the TED presentation: https://tim.blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/ted_ferriss_fear_setting_sample_slides.pdf
This talk was also shared on the podcast TED Talks Daily, where TED shares new ideas every weekday. You might also enjoy my conversation with Chris Anderson on The TED Interview podcast, in which we discuss philosophy, psychedelics, and much more.
SUGGESTED READING:
Some Practical Thoughts on Suicide
The Tao of Seneca — On Groundless Fears
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm the optimal mineral. |
| 0:02.0 | At this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking. |
| 0:06.0 | Can I also request a question? |
| 0:08.0 | Now I just sit in the perfect time. |
| 0:10.0 | What if I did the alpha? |
| 0:12.0 | I'm a cybernetic organism living this show where metal impulse goes on. |
| 0:16.0 | Late in the air, Paris show. |
| 0:24.0 | Hello boys and girls ladies and germs. |
| 0:26.0 | This is Tim Ferris and welcome to a very short episode of the Tim Ferris show. |
| 0:30.0 | It is going to be between, let's call it 14 and 15 minutes. |
| 0:34.0 | And it describes something that is incredibly important to me called fear setting. |
| 0:40.0 | It is the most valuable exercise that I do at least every quarter, usually every month. |
| 0:46.0 | And I've been using it a lot in these very uncertain times. |
| 0:50.0 | It is also responsible for my best decisions and biggest successes in business and personally. |
| 0:56.0 | It's also helped me to avoid paralysis by analysis. |
| 1:00.0 | It's helped me to avoid catastrophic mistakes and also self-destruction. |
| 1:06.0 | So I want to share this now. |
| 1:08.0 | I feel there is some urgency to sharing this. |
| 1:12.0 | It was recorded, that is the audio you're going to hear. |
| 1:16.0 | April 24th, 2017. |
| 1:18.0 | Almost exactly three years ago. |
| 1:20.0 | It is the talk I am proudest of. |
... |
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