How does fear setting fit into the

story?

>> Well, Tim, it fits into the story in a

few ways. Challenge accepted at its core

originally began by me taking a

whiteboard and writing all of my fears

out and then connecting each fear to a

circumstance that would cause me to

address it. Not just as a like personal

self-help type of thing because I am a

very anxious person internally,

>> but more specifically because it makes

for a better story.

>> We realized very early on showing the

vulnerability, showing the fear, that's

a key part of Snider's beats of

storytelling. So starting with the all

is lost moment of the story led us to

unlock really really fascinating

episodes and we would structure the

thesis of each of like I want to be a

firefighter but I'm not brave enough.

Okay, that's an interesting story and

we're thinking about that in every piece

of the edit, every piece of the

pre-production. And that is the climax

of the emotional core of when I finally

go in a burning building

>> why we care so much. It's the same in

the Mission Impossible project. I would

love to be in a Mission Impossible

movie, but am I actually brave enough to

strap myself to the side of a plane like

icon Tom Cruz? Okay, I've got to do that

first. But I actually brought something,

Tim,

>> you brought something.

>> I brought something to help demonstrate

fear setting.

>> Okay,

>> I'm going to bring it out now.

>> Yeah, let's do it.

>> I'll describe it for the audio

listeners.

>> No, I recognize

the colors.

>> Okay. Unfortunately, you are dealing

with a fan in the chair opposite from

you. But reading the 4H hour work week

changed my life.

>> This is the original copy I have from

2016. I was a bit young when it came out

in 2007, so I didn't have that that

version, so this might be slightly

revised. But I went back into my

archives

>> and I found this email.

>> The date is what is today? March 31st,

2026. Mhm.

>> The date of this email,

I'm not making this up. March 18th,

2016. It has been exactly 10 years since

I sent this email.

>> Okay.

>> I have to shout out my therapist, Jodie,

because she's the one who told me to

read your book. And I wanted to read a

section of my fear setting.

>> Oh my god. Amazing.

>> Now, as you know, because these are your

memories in your brain. This was prior

to the define

prevent repair chart. Yeah. Of your 2017

>> tech talk.

>> So this isn't even in a chart. These are

just a couple of questions that you had.

But I wrote here this 20. This is so

crazy. My dream is to leave my job,

start a YouTube channel, somehow

succeed, own my ideas, and start a

company where I can grow as a

storyteller and help other storytellers

grow without traditional barriers to

entry.

>> Number one, define your nightmare. I'm

just going to read a few of the

highlights,

>> please. Oh, yeah. No, take your time. to

find my nightmare was going broke, never

figuring out what I'm best at since I

find the most joy in trying everything

rather than specializing.

People not thinking I'm funny. And the

last one is actually not being funny.

>> And of course, I went through the steps

of repairing the damage.

>> Do you have any examples there? Of

course. Yeah. Yeah. Because for just I

want to give like a quick

No, no, not spiel. Just like a quick

context rapper. So, fear setting is a

pretty straightforward thing. It's

basically barred from the Stoics. I'm

not the first person to look at this. I

just tried to systematize it for myself.

It was in the 4-hour work week. And it's

like goal setting, but it's identifying

your fears very specifically

>> and then making them as concrete as

possible, then talking about what you

might do to prevent them and or repair

them if they inevitably happened. And

the objective here is to in a sense

demystify and take your fears from being

this nebulous cloud of anxiety to

something that you can put under a

microscope

>> to test.

>> Yes. So the first part is defining the

nightmare. The second is what steps

would you take to repair the damage even

temporarily? And here I had

using some

using using my savings from my Google

internship.

>> Yeah. So, I did have savings from that.

And then making sure that my resume or

LinkedIn was ready for other jobs in the

industry. This is number three. If you

were fired from your job today, how

would you get things under financial

control? And I I said that I would

temporarily use my savings and if that

didn't work out, aggressively apply for

other jobs. Enlisted some other

companies I would reach out to. This is

where it gets very intense. What are you

putting off out of fear? I'm putting off

quitting my job. I'm putting off

reaching out to all the people I need to

to make this dream a reality because it

means I have to say it out loud. I've

reached out to some people, but I know I

can do better. What is it costing you

financially, emotionally, physically to

postpone action?

I'm under emotional high stress. I want

to tell stories that really resonate

with other people. I want to be around

people who share creative joy in the

same values of quality that I do. I am

unhappy in an environment where I feel

like people feel the opposite. What are

you waiting for? So this is the last

section. I'm waiting for a false sense

of security to inspire me to take a

leap. A brand offering to collaborate,

someone else offering financial

stability, etc.

But I'm actually being challenged and

invited to create my own security for

the first time. I have

Oh, this is like crazy to read.

I've continually found success in other

people's rubric of success, but I've

actually never found happiness.

I've

never designed

my own rubric of success

and that's because I don't trust myself

to define success.

I'm scared to assume that

responsibility.

That was my fear setting.

It's very personal process.

>> It is.

>> I know you and anyone listening who have

actually like done it can can empathize

with that.

>> Mhm. I'm a very emotional person as you

can see from my videos. It's real.

>> Anyways, I was so excited to share that

with you.

>> I'm so moved by you sharing that and I

really appreciate you bringing that.

>> Yeah, of course.

>> And you [ __ ] did it also, right?

>> God, that's crazy. Like guys, it works.

>> It It actually works. Wait, I didn't

tell you the funniest part of this. Here

was the funniest part. So, this has

obviously been on my bookshelf for 10

years at this point, and I am a copious

like you, handwriter, notetaker. I beat

up my books. I write in the margins and

proof. I mean, like, this is you can see

the wear and tear on this thing. But

when I opened this, there was absolutely

no annotation. And I was like, why is

this? And I I felt stumped on it. And it

wasn't until I found this email where it

was revealed. Okay, this is how I wrote

to my therapist with the chart.

OMG, all caps. I am obsessed with the

4hour work week. Several exclamation

points. I just got the book on Monday

from my coworker and I've been reading

it incessantly every night. Here's my

fear setting exercise.

I stole this book apparently.

And I sat and I was like I called my

therapist last night before the

recording. I was like, who would I have

borrowed this book from? I couldn't I

have no idea whose book is in my lap

right now, but it's been on my shelf for

10 years. Whoever it is, I'm so sorry.

By the way, I did buy all of your other

books, so I did contribute to that

economy, but I have a stolen Tim Ferris

book.

>> I should like contribute to the cycle

and donate it to a library or something.

But

>> oh my god, that is so good. It's so

funny because the person from my job who

let me borrow and steal this has no idea

how much they impact me because I don't

even remember who it was. I mean, we

were all in a bullpin with 30 desks. I

probably just borrowed it from someone

who sat next to me,