{photo by Celeste. That's one nasty cubicle monster!}
A few days ago, as I was checking out the 4-Hour Workweek book online per Amanda's recommendation, I stumbled upon the author, Tim Ferris', blog and this video of a speech he gave called The Practicality of Pessimism: Stoicism as a Productivity System. (It's only 5 min long if you want to check it out)
You may be thinking, wha? Pessimism can be productive? And that's what I thought too, which is what intrigued me to watch the video at all. In it, he draws from Stoicism's notion of "negative visualization" to ask, "could defining your fears be more important than defining your goals?"
I'm not sure it's more important per se, but I think it's definitely a necessary step along the way to achieving your goals. To really acknowledge and rationalize your fears can seem very daunting, I know. Many of us would rather high-tail it out of those negative thoughts and just play with a puppy instead.
But when you allow yourself to go there, into the pessimistic part of your brain that details all the worst case scenarios that your decisions may lead to, it may actually help.
It can help you find solutions to those horrible scenarios, it can help you realize that some of those fears may be completely un-realistic, it can help you see the logical steps you need to take to ensure the worse case scenarios don't happen.
What fears are holding you back from taking action on something important to you? How are you going to get past the fear of starting something new, quitting something, moving or making another big change?
As Tim suggests in the video, grab a sheet of paper and face your fears:
- In one column, detail all the possible worst case scenarios that could happen if you did what you're considering. Be pessimistic, let that negativity spew.
- In the second column, detail all the things that could minimize the likelihood of those worst case scenarios from happening.
- In the third column, detail all the line by line action items that it'll take for you to get where you want to go. What do you have to do to make that change in your life, to avoid those worst case scenarios, and is it worth it?
After you lay everything out in front of you, you can better assess how difficult it will really be to acheive the goal you have in mind. And my guess is that you'll see it's not as difficult as you thought it would be. That the worse case scenarios are exactly that, and there are plenty of steps you can take to ensure they don't happen to you. And that by detailing realistic action steps you can take to help get you where you want to go, you'll get there.
You can take the power away from your fears. You can loosen the grasp from whatever it is that's holding you back.
At least, that's what I think. But that may just be my optimism creeping its way back in ;)
