Fear Setting: The exercise that stopped my overthinking and changed my life

On April 22, 2020, I sat down and completed an exercise that would change everything.

It shifted my mindset, pushed me to take action, and within 12 months, led me to a life I couldn’t have imagined.

At the time, the full impact of the pandemic was hitting, and Cricket Australia had just announced that 80% of staff would be stood down for nine weeks. I’ve written before about what I did during that time, but this is about the thought process that made me go all in on SportsGrad.

For three years, SportsGrad had been a humble YouTube channel with 30 subscribers. I knew it had potential, but I had never given it the time or effort it needed to succeed. Now, for the first time ever, I had a rare window of clear air to focus on it.

But pulling the trigger wasn’t that simple. Doubts crept in. People around me were doing any job they could find. My heart wanted to start a business but my head was saying?

“Is this really the best use of your time and money?”
“What if SportsGrad flopped and you wasted $10k and 10 weeks?”
“What if your job doesn’t come back?”

To get out of my own way and make a decision I wouldn’t regret, I turned to a framework championed by Tim Ferriss called Fear Setting.

What is Fear Setting?

Fear Setting is a simple but powerful exercise designed to reframe fear and doubt.

Here’s how it works:

1. Define your fears – What are you afraid of? What’s the worst that could happen?

2. Prevent – What can you do to reduce the chances of your fear coming true?

3. Repair – If the worst does happen, how would you fix it?

4. Outline the benefits of a partial attempt – What could you gain from just trying?

5. Forecast the cost of inaction – What happens if you do nothing?

So I did the work. I defined my fears and explored what I could do to prevent and repair them. Then I looked at the cost of inaction.

And that’s when it hit me.

(you might need to zoom in on this part)

The most alarming risk was doing nothing.

Fear Setting made me realise that doing nothing was the biggest risk of all. I was more afraid of wasting my mid-twenties to chase a dream than I was of losing a bit of income.

Seeing the cost of inaction written out in front of me painted an ugly picture.

I saw myself five years down the track, still clinging to an idea that I thought “could have worked”, but I never had the guts to fully pursue.

I didn’t want to live the rest of my life wondering ‘what if?’ whilst walking through the world subconsciously disgruntled.

That was way scarier than risking a bit of time and money.

I thought, there’s $37 Trillion in the world, I could always make more. And even if it failed, it would make for a good answer in my next job interview.

And given that I had no mortgage or dependents, I had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

The odds were clear:

• The fear of losing time and money? A 2/10 life-changing impact.

• The potential upside of just giving SportsGrad a shot? An 8/10 life-changing impact.

Now it made sense to me. It wasn’t a risk anymore, it was obvious.

So, I ran through the exercise a few more times to be sure. Then made the call.

On April 22, I started the exercise, unsure of what to do.

9 days later I had found a place and moved to Lorne to go all in on SportsGrad.

Now, I use Fear Setting every month.

That decision in 2020 was just the start.

It was so impactful that I made it part of my routine. Fear doesn’t disappear, but Fear Setting keeps it from making my decisions for me.

So I made it a key part of my monthly review.

Like muscles in the gym, my mindset strengthens with every time I do the thing I’m fearful of.

And because of that, my life today is beyond anything I imagined back then.

• I’ve built a business that allows me to work for myself.

• I’ve traveled the world freely, attending the FIFA World Cup, Cricket World Cup, The Ashes, the Olympics, and even three Indian weddings.

• I’ve been able to live by the beach in Lorne while creating an impact on the careers of thousands of people.

• And even attend court to give evidence of my sexual assault in front of my perpetrator.

All of this because I sat down one day, put my fears on paper, and realised that the biggest risk wasn’t going for it, it was shying away.

In hindsight, the life-ending downside of losing a bit of time and money was really a 1/10.

And the life-changing upside has been a profound 11/10.

So if there’s one thing I’ve learned in 5 years of Fear Setting, it’s this:

Fear doesn’t go away. But when you face it head-on, it stops controlling your future.

If you’re hesitating, overthinking, waiting for the ‘right time’, or worried about ‘what if it doesn’t work out’, ask yourself this:

What is it really costing me not to do it?