Anxiety and a long-forgotten superpower: Stoic philosophy

How can you handle episodes that create huge anxiety? Tim Ferriss turns to Stoic philosophy, which is more modern than it might seem, to describe an introspection exercise designed to meet your fears head-on.

Ferriss starts off by making a list of the things he’d like to do but that spawn a certain kind of anxiety, such as going on vacation… when he’s actually his own boss! Then he makes three columns on a sheet of paper:

“Define” – this includes the disaster scenarios that might arise if he takes a vacation: “It’ll be rainy, I’ll get depressed, I’ll miss a tax deadline and there will be an audit”. Don’t leave anything out!

“Prevent” involves finding answers to these scenarios, such as: “I’ll take my light therapy lamp with me, I’ll forward my mail to my accountant.”

“Repair”: this is a list of the ways to limit the damage if the disaster scenario does play out. “I can jet off to sunny Spain, get help from a good tax specialist”.

Under the heading: “What are the benefits of an attempt or a partial success?” – Ferriss jots down everything that he could gain from the experience.

Last of all, Ferriss weighs up the cost of inaction. He writes down what he would lose if he doesn’t act: “I’ll burn out and end up losing my company in spite of it all.” This final sentiment often helped Ferriss swing into action…