How to Let Your Fears Motivate You

Recently, Deskhub had a Ted Talk Tuesday. If you are a member at DeskHub, I highly recommend you go check out this event. They want to make it every other Tuesday. Basically, we introduced ourselves, ate pizza, and watched a Ted Talk presentation… on a Tuesday! Duh. Haha.

Fear Motivation

The presentation we saw a couple of weeks ago was “Why You Should Define Your Fears Instead of Your Goals” by Tim Ferriss. The Talk was so inspiring that I just had to make this blog post! I’ve kept this on the down-low for a while but I MIGHT be moving to Los Angeles for a couple of months!

What Is Fear?

I did not want to announce it because if it doesn’t go through, then I’ll be slightly embarrassed. The reason for this is that I wanted to be more adventurous and the best things in life are often the scariest. All of my classes next semester are going to be online, so remote work for the win. My lease ends in mid-August and a couple of my relatives have spare bedrooms at their house. In addition, I hope to take my blog full time as well. I figured why not! It’s now or never. The reason why I say I MIGHT be moving is that the only thing that would be stopping is my dad and his family. If they move to Scottsdale (where I currently am) then I will be staying here and help them move. Otherwise, adios Arizona for a couple of months.

I highly recommend you go watch the Ted Talk if you have not seen it. In the presentation, Ferris talks about defining your fears and the worst case scenarios. The fear setting worksheet is divided into three sections.

Learn How To Turn Your Fears Into Motivation

Define – Prevent – Repair

The first section, you want to make three columns: define, prevent, and repair. Define the worst case scenario, how do you prevent it from happening, and how would you repair it if the scenario occurs. In addition, you would also rate them on a scale of 0 through 10 of how negative the impact is. I decided to leave that part out. Let fear be your biggest motivator. Here are some of my fears for moving out to Los Angeles:

“We suffer more in imagination than in reality.”

Define

1. I won’t be able to find a job out in LA.
2. I’ll start failing my classes since they’re all online.
3. The money will be an issue or I’ll be financially unstable.
4. I’ll be lonely and depressed because I won’t have friends.
5. I won’t have a place back home in AZ.

Prevent

1. Apply to jobs and internships ASAP.
2. Talk to my professor via video chat for help, make sure I schedule out time to do work and homework.
3. Start saving up and cut down unnecessary expenses.
4. DM other local bloggers in the area to meet up and hang out.
5. Keep tabs on apartments that I want to lease and ask them to notify me if there’s a unit available when I decide to move back.

Repair

1. Work for my family in LA.
2. Move back to Arizona and take in-person classes instead of online. Don’t fail the class a second time.
3. Ask mom for help. So much for being independent, right? Haha
4. Hang out with my family/cousins and make friends with their friends Haha
5. Go back to Tucson with mom and couch surf on my friend’s place until I find an apartment.

Benefits – “What might be the benefits of an attempt or partial success?”

The next section of this: benefits. Basically what benefits will come out of this action. It’s hard to stay motivated but by listing benefits, it will help you stay on track. These could be emotional, physical, spiritual, etc benefits.

• Open up my perspective
• Explore the city
• More opportunities
• Learn more about myself in terms of what I want to do with my career
• Learn new skills and life lessons
• Make new friends
• Never wonder “what if…“

Cost of Inaction – 6 months to 3 years

Lastly, the third section is the cost of your inaction. You break the section up into three-time frame: 6 months, 1 year and 3 years. I listed out what happens in the next couple of months to a year if I don’t take this LA move. Either way, the trip would only be a semester so it’s not anything dramatic. This section was a bit hard for me to think about because it’s only a semester and I feel like not much will have change if I stay in Phoenix. Who knows, this section was a bit confusing.

6 months

Being stuck working full time and going to school full time in Phoenix, Arizona. Not knowing whether I would have more opportunities out in Los Angeles. (Probably will be rich from working a lot and hopefully living with dad and he won’t make me pay rent hahaha)

1 year

This is a bit hard because I’ll still be in school and I’ll just always wonder if there was anything out in Los Angeles for me. Most likely working and hopefully embarking on my career.

3 year

Wondering “what if…“ while being stuck in Phoenix because by now, I should have started my career and maybe have bought a house or something. Haha

“Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life.” ~ Jerzy Gregorek

I hope you all enjoyed reading this article on “fear setting”. Let me know what you think down below on this exercise! I hope to hear what are some of your fears that prevent you from doing something you want.

Check out my other blog posts here!