How can you know fear is present in your life?
A disturbing feeling that you did something wrong and someone is mad at you.
An ever-present belief that everything will go wrong and you will fail.
Looping thoughts you can’t get rid of.
Feeling like someone is punching you in the stomach and it’s harder to breathe.
Catastrophizing.
Binary thinking — believing things are purely good or bad.
Narrowed vision and focus.
Lack of joie de vivre (love of life).
If you experience one or more of these symptoms, you are afraid.
It’s time you stopped hiding it in the fog and did something about it.
Because when you try to hide it, it only screams louder.
Your body’s natural danger-detection system thinks you aren’t listening.
Here’s the most effective formula for dealing with fear I’ve learned.
It helped me to:
Start and grow my business
Let go of toxic relationships
Make difficult decisions from the heart
Live a more peaceful and calm life
1) Understand fear.
If you feel fear, it doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you.
It means you are alive.
Fear is basically a detection system your body developed to protect you.
It causes risk aversion (not wanting to take risks) and loss aversion (overestimating the consequences of losing something).
Why?
Let’s say you heard something in a bush 2,000 years ago and went to check it (taking a risk).
Option A (good outcome) → It’s a rabbit. You can kill it and have food for one meal (small reward).
Option B (bad outcome) → It’s a tiger. It kills you and your life is over (the biggest punishment).
So our genes come from people who didn’t take risks, because the ones who did… often died.
What about loss aversion?
Suppose you disagreed with your tribe 2,000 years ago and they kicked you out.
The consequence?
Yes — death.
No human could survive alone back then.
So we learned not to risk what we have, because the consequences were dire.
In nature, what bleeds eventually dies.
2) View fear through the lens of a human living in 2025 — not a caveman.
Here’s the catch:
Modern society isn’t like that.
It’s actually the opposite.
You get huge rewards for taking risks and small punishments.
Example: starting a business
Option A (good outcome) → You change your life forever and give value to thousands of people.
Option B (bad outcome) → You lose a little time and money but ultimately return to your starting point.
What’s more, your losses aren’t as severe as they once were.
What happens when you disagree with the tribe nowadays?
Nothing. Nada. Zilch.
You can change your tribe/social circle.
You can move to a different city or country.
You can start a completely new job.
The opportunities we have aren’t limited by small tribes and a lack of options.
They are unlimited and easily available to us.
Think about how lucky we are to be alive right now.
3) Use Fear-Setting.
I learned this from Tim Ferriss, and it’s one of the most powerful tools I’ve used to improve my life this year.
Instead of setting goals, set fears.
The freedom and lightness you’ll experience after this exercise is priceless.
This is the action portion of this letter — do this with me.
Pull out a piece of paper and let’s go.
1) DEFINE
Define the worst-case, nightmare scenario in detail.
This drags fear from the shadows into the light.
Describe the worst possible outcome of your decision.
No vagueness; be very specific.
Before starting my business, this was mine:
I’m going to be homeless, lose all my money, lose the opportunity to go to university, have no food or shelter, and no friends to help me.
I’m going to let down my family and the people I love and want to take care of.
I’m going to become exactly like the number-one person I didn’t want to be like — sociopathic, resentful, and evil.
Just doing that is so powerful.
Write it out and see for yourself.
2) PREVENT
Ask yourself: What steps can I take to prevent the worst-case scenario from happening?
You activate the action part of your brain instead of the worry part.
This also puts the negative scenario under your control.
For me it was:
Don’t spend more than you earn.
Learn skills that help you survive failure.
Don’t destroy your friendships.
Don’t fall into bad habits.
These activities ensured failure.
Avoiding them didn’t guarantee success — but it did help me avoid complete ruin.
Do it for your scenario/decision.
3) REPAIR
Now you already feel better and have more clarity, but there’s more.
Let’s go to the other side.
If the worst case happens, how would you repair it?
What steps would you take to get back on the horse?
For me it was:
Go to a homeless shelter for food and accommodation.
Avoid drugs and alcohol like hell.
Look for a job without an hourly cap (driving Uber, warehouse, production).
Sleep in the shelter until I have enough money to rent a room and build from there.
Boom. That’s exactly what I would have done.
Looking back now, me going homeless wasn’t likely.
But I can only say that now — it felt real in the moment.
And this exercise is what set me free.
Two bonus questions to ask yourself:
1) What are the benefits of partial success or even just the attempt?
(For me: proving I’m brave, learning business, developing social skills, etc.)
2) What is the cost of inaction?
How will your life look in 3 months, 12 months, and 3 years if you don’t act?
Not doing anything also has a price — we just never think about it.
To finish, one of the best passages I’ve read about fear:
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
— Frank Herbert, Dune
Hits hard.
I’m back to regular content creation and providing value for you.
I never left — I was just taking care of business on the back end, not only to teach you but to apply my lessons in practice.
Stay sharp,
Adrian
