{"id":11376,"date":"2022-05-27T23:09:49","date_gmt":"2022-05-28T04:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mindmappingsoftwareblog.com\/?p=11376"},"modified":"2022-05-27T23:37:33","modified_gmt":"2022-05-28T04:37:33","slug":"fear-setting-mind-map","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mindmappingsoftwareblog.com\/fear-setting-mind-map\/","title":{"rendered":"How to create a fear-setting mind map"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"fear-setting<\/a>
\n\u201cI had no idea what I was doing. I was working 14 plus hour days, seven days a week. I was using stimulants to get going. I was using depressants to wind down and go to sleep. It was a disaster, felt completely trapped.\u201d<\/strong> (1)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Tim<\/a>These are the words of entrepreneur, investor, and author, Tim Ferriss.<\/p>\n

In 2004, he was working in his first business and was weighed down by overwork and the fear of failure. Although Tim was working non-stop, he was not making enough progress to stabilize his business and establish work-life balance.<\/p>\n

Then he came across this profound observation by the great Roman Philosopher, Seneca:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe suffer more often in imagination than in reality.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Fears fade in the harsh light of reality<\/h2>\n

This idea had a powerful impact on Tim. He began to wonder whether his fear of his business failing was reasonable or whether his imagination was creating unrealistic dread. He began to explore Seneca\u2019s ideas further. He found that the great philosopher used a method to confront his own fears called \u201cthe pre-meditation of evils\u201d (\u201cpremeditatio malorum\u201d) in which he thought of the very worst case scenario of his intended action. He fully imagined, or sometimes even enacted, this scenario. Seneca found that this tended to make the fear manageable enough for him to take action.<\/p>\n

Tim decided to put Seneca\u2019s method to the test.<\/p>\n

First, he asked the key question, \u201cWhat if \u2026 ?\u201d \u201cWhat if I took a month-long sabbatical to regain my health and work-life balance and during that time my company went insolvent?\u201d If this worst scenario played out, Tim would lose his car, apartment and his income.<\/p>\n

Then what? How would he survive? One solution that came to him was that he could move in with a friend. He would need to rely on family and friends for a bit of cash until he could get on his feet again.<\/p>\n

What would this feel like? Could he get through it emotionally? He decided to put this to a test. He moved in with a friend in London for a month. Far from his business collapsing, it was the start of great things to come. He wore the same jeans and T-shirt for a week. He lived on \u201cvery cheap food, rice and beans for instance, two to three dollars a day in total cost, for a week.\u201d (2)<\/p>\n

\"fear<\/a>
\nHe found the experience completely liberating. His greatest fear of going bankrupt dissolved into thin air. He realized that if it really happened, he could make a plan. Tim says that he still challenges himself from time to time by \u201cpracticing poverty\u201d to make sure that this fear does not hold him back from taking action with his businesses. This practice helps him to inoculate himself from fear. He rehearses the thing that he fears and the fear dissipates.<\/p>\n

How to use the Fear Setting Method<\/h2>\n

Tim adapted Seneca\u2019s method and created a simple Fear-Setting framework which is similar to a goal-setting framework.<\/p>\n

Here’s how it works: We often set our goals, but we do not set our fears. If you have not done this before, I encourage you to try something new and use mind mapping to explore Fear Setting. Take something that you are really afraid of and bring that fear out into the light. Our fears tend to be quite vague. You can have a feeling of dread that is very real, but hard to put our finger on. Get it out into the light and see whether the Fear Setting can help you break through the fear and into action.<\/p>\n

In a nutshell, the first step is to write down whatever you are afraid of and describe the worst possible outcomes of that fear. Ask yourself, \u201cWhat if I\u2026 ?\u201d Then work out what you can do to prevent these outcomes from happening and how you could repair or recover from them if they do happen. The next step is to write down the all potential benefits of pushing through your fear. Finally, you look into the future and think about the cost of inaction of you let fear hold you back from your dream or goal.<\/p>\n

Now it’s up to you to try the Fear-Setting framework:<\/p>\n