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Quote of the Week

"But I guess it never is what you worry over that comes to pass in the end. The real catastrophes are always different—unimagined, unprepared for, unknown."

-Karen Thompson Walker (Author) 🌼

This Week's "Subconscious Success" Tip

Have you ever wanted to do something, but the fear of what might happen held you back from going through with it fully?

Our lovely brain that is always trying to protect us will sometimes offer us "what if" scenarios that can generate uncertainty, doubt, and fear on the inside.

Sometimes we don't even allow ourselves to even entertain the idea that something is possible for us...we just say "I could never do that".

I've experienced a lot of this myself as someone who completely switched career paths and went into creating my solo-practice.

As a coach, of course, I like to explore my thoughts and feelings to see if there's opportunity for expansion or a perspective shift. I've often naturally found myself asking "What's the worst that could happen?" and going from there.

Interestingly enough, a friend shared with me about an exercise created by Tim Ferriss called "fear-setting" which includes these kinds of questions as part of the process.

My tip to you this week is to go check this out!

How to apply this tip

Note before starting - if the situation that's generating fear is deeply emotionally challenging, consider doing this with the support of a licensed mental health professional. Please be gentle with yourself and keep safety and wellbeing as top of mind.

Otherwise - this exercise can work great for things like considering launching a new offering, career jumps, taking sabbaticals (like Tim), moving locations, asking a person out on a date, etc.

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Here's an overview of what to do:

Firstly, check out this awesome Ted Talk that Tim Ferriss gave on this topic.

Then:

1st Page

1. Take a piece of paper, flip it so that it's horizontal, then divide it into 3 columns/sections.

2. Label the columns: define, prevent, and repair.

3. In the "define" column, write down all the worst things that could happen as a result of this thing you want to do that have been generating fear and stress. Tim says to write down between 10-20, but I don't know if there's a rule to this. It can also be helpful to rate these on a scale of how likely they are to happen from 1-10 (10 being most likely).

4. In the "prevent" column, write down all the things you could do to prevent each of these things you wrote down in the "define" column from happening or at the very least decrease the likelihood of them happening. While doing this and the step below...keep this question in mind..."has anyone in the history of time ever figured out what to do in this situation?" Chances are...the answer is yes.

5. In the "repair" column, write down what you would do if the things in the "define" column actually did happen. What could you do to repair the damage even a little bit, and who could you ask for help?

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2nd page - Benefits

Brainstorm as many as possible: What might be benefits of an attempt at this or a even a partial success?

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3rd page - Cost of Inaction

We don't often consider the various costs of not changing anything. It's not just about money - we also need to consider our other resources like time, health, mental sanity, joy, and purpose.

So ask yourself: If I avoid this action/decision, what might my life look like in 6 months, 1 year, and 3 years?

This isn't in Tim's official exercise, but I'll even sometimes take myself to my "death bed" and ask that version of myself "What are your thoughts about doing this thing or not? What advice do you have for me?". Usually I'll get some clear wisdom about whether I would regret going through with this or not.

Why this works (the short version):

Uncertainty and fear can trigger a "freeze" response in the body because the nervous system is interpreting what we want to do as a threat to our safety in some way.

Also, by default, a lot of people base what they're capable of on their past experiences.

This can lead us to procrastinate or come up with lots of reasons why doing something will never work or be successful.

By being gentle with ourselves and becoming more curious about what's underneath the fear can help remind ourselves of our resourcefulness and allow our nervous system to calm down because now there's more of a plan and sense of certainty that things will work out no matter the outcome.

This exploration can help get us into action if before we were completely stuck.

Ready to try it?

Consider something you've been putting off taking action on because of fear, doubt, or uncertainty. If it resonates, take it through the "fear-setting" process and see if you receive any new awareness or surge of energy to take action!

That's it! Have questions about this week's tip? Want to share something with me? Connect with me!

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Cheers to your success!

-Alina Nikishina

Transformational Coach & Mentor

P.S. Sometimes we can do this kind of process and still sense a part of us is too afraid to take action. In this case, it can be really helpful to work with this fear using a subconscious change work method like "Core Transformation"!

Is this what you're ready to do? Click here to book a free discovery call with me, and let's chat about how Core Transformation can help you gently transform fear into resourcefulness and ease.

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