[[🪣 My Life Buckets]] tags:: #note/thing | #on/performance dates:: 2022-03-14 people:: #people/timferris # Fear-setting *The worst outcome of most of my decisions is not that bad.* This reminds me of [[essential questions]] to ask in any situation. One of which would be, "and what's the worst that could happen?" How would my life really be following the logic? Generally I'll end up just as happy as before, with a minor change in my situation. It's kind of like the [[hedonic treadmill]], where one accommodates to new money and opportunity, and nearly immediately gets used to their new position and does not change their perception just because they got the thing they were looking for, the same happens in reverse. We acclimate to our situation when it's a loss of something the same way we do when it's a gain of something. Fear-setting is a process to apply to a situation. I can be inoculated against the worst case scenario which unlocks my ability to make better decisions. This is so helpful because it is valuable for high-stress and decisions. We are in the habit of exaggerating or anticipating things that never happen and create the sorrow. Thank great for sharing then ask it to sit aside and listen to another voice in the room which is [[wisdom]] The opposite argument would be, if you don't think about the consequences of your actions, you will make "unforced errors" and do stupid things that put you unnecessarily in harms way. If we connect this to [[Hell Yes or No]], or "The relative unimportance of almost everything" which is the [[Essentialism]] quote, we see that very few decisions will have very large impacts, but we often cannot tell which are which. So, what to do? Focus on [[Design my life to live]], a process that allow frequent small experiments, be realistic about the _real_ risk, and the limited control I have over important things. Will a war displace my family? Will an asteroid hit the earth? Who the fuck knows, but until it happens, should I ruin today worrying about it? I don't think so. Will Lyle missing band class ruin his future? I doubt it. ## Sources: Blog post by #people/timferris : [The Tao of Seneca Podcast](https://tim.blog/2016/01/22/the-tao-of-seneca/) [Fear Setting](https://tim.blog/2017/05/15/fear-setting/) [The Tao of Seneca Audiobook](https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Tao-of-Seneca-Audiobook/B01AIXEJKU?qid=1647257244&sr=1-1&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&pf_rd_p=83218cca-c308-412f-bfcf-90198b687a2f&pf_rd_r=WYKZRCF549PNEWXARRYM) Letter 13: On Groundless Fears