I sometimes get asked “What was the turning point?”.
In other words...
What
took me from thinking about quitting my job, to standing on a remote beach in the Scottish Highlands making the phone call where I actually quit?
Now, I don’t think there’s a single answer to this.
There were lots of moving parts.
But there were two very specific things which were game-changers. And without the breakthroughs these gave me, I might still be stuck in my old job today.
The first was Tim Ferriss’s Fear Setting Exercise. A set of questions you can ask yourself if you’re facing a hefty decision or thinking of making a big change.
Here’s a simple version:
(with the answers I gave a couple of years ago)
Q1. What’s the worst that could happen?
Would it be the end of your life? How likely is it that these things DO happen?
I thought the worst that could happen if I quit my job to start a business would be ending up broke or bankrupt.
Likely?
No.
I knew there was plenty I could do to stem the tide before it got this far.
But was it a worst case scenario?
Yes. And it wouldn’t be much fun.
Q2. What steps could you take to repair the damage if this DOES happen? How
could you get things back under control?
The answer which sprung to mind here was “get a job”. Which seemed do-able.
Q3. What are the outcomes or benefits of more positive scenarios?
I jotted down things like:
Doing work I enjoy which is aligned to my values, strengths and interests…
Having control and flexibility over how, when and where I work…
Having more balance in my life…
And living a healthier life.
Q4. What are you putting off
out of fear? What fears do you have?
This took a bit more thought.
And I landed on three main fears which were stopping me from quitting:
A fear of the unknown, a fear of giving up what I had and a fear of failing.
Q5. What is it costing you – financially,
emotionally and physically – to postpone action?
This was the big one for me. I have a couple of pages of notes answering this single question.
What did it boil down to?
Well, it wasn’t really money. I was earning a good salary.
Instead, it came down to the impact of the 9 to 5 on my physical, mental and emotional health.
And a gut feeling relentlessly gnawing away at me that I was on completely the wrong path. And
that I might look back one day and think “I really wish I’d given that a go”.
So this is the Fear Setting Exercise.
(I’ve
shortened things for this email, but you get the gist)
And what this exercise made me see is this:
If things went really badly, the downside would be a total pain
in the ass.
But even then it would be temporary. And it would be recoverable.
Whereas the upside of things working out
could be massive. Potentially life-changing. Even if it meant some sacrifice, toil and discomfort along the way.
But my job involved significant sacrifice, toil and discomfort anyway.
So quitting my job was an asymmetric bet where “losing” meant going back to a version of what I had before I placed the bet. And “winning” could mean significant prizes.
And when I looked at it like this, things started to become a lot clearer.
So with that being said, if you have a big decision to make…
Or
options to weigh up…
You could try the Fear Setting Exercise yourself.
It might give you a different perspective or open something up for you.
That’s all for today.
I’ll dive into the second game-changer tomorrow.
- Tom
p.s. Whenever you're ready, here are the ways you can connect with me