An Exercise to Visualize My Fears During the COVID-19 Outbreak using Tim Ferriss’ Fear-Setting Framework

It’s a global time of panic and fears. At this point, it’s fair to say that everyone is fearful or concerned about some kind of consequences that the coronavirus / COVID-19 outbreak may bring to one’s life, short-term or long-term.

Depends on where you are in life, your fears can look very different than others’: What if I get infected? What if my family gets infected? What if I get infected and transmit it to others? What if stores close in my area and I can’t get groceries to feed myself? Heck, what if I run out of toilet papers and I can’t get them anywhere? What if we go into a recession? What if the economy collapses? What if I lose my job?

All these questions popped into my head at some point in the last month. So I thought, what’s more appropriate right now than using Tim Ferriss’ Fear-Setting Framework to clear my fearful thoughts?

If you want to learn more about Tim Ferriss, and this framework he established, there are many resources on the Internet. Here is how he explained the framework with his personal stories in a TED talk:

Why you should define your fears instead of your goals | Tim Ferriss

The purpose of this post isn’t to repeat Tim Ferriss’ ideas since I doubt I’ll ever do a better job than he does. I am also just an average person thinking about my own future, so the focus of my exercise isn’t going to be about global health measures and economical policies. However, I do believe that if an average person can think through these personal problems and fears and come up with actions using this framework, then collectively we can make a difference to the world in fighting this pandemic.

Define: What are the worst things that could happen to me during this outbreak?

1. I could get infected and die.
2. I could get infected and be hospitalized.
3. I could get infected and no hospital bed would be available. I would have no choice but to stay home.
4. While I stayed home and prayed to get better, I could have a lot of trouble taking care of myself.
5. I could transmit the virus to other people, especially my loved ones.
6. My loved ones could get infected too and these worst things could all happen to them.
7. There could a shortage of goods in my area and I would have no access to the essentials.
8. If I was lucky enough to not get sick, the United States could go into a recession and I could lose my job.
9. If I lost my current job, I could be income-less for god-knows-how-long.

Prevent: What are the things I could do to stop these things from happening?

1. Social distancing. Cancel all social events. Avoid crowds.
2. Hygiene. Wash my hands and clean surfaces often. Disinfect if necessary.
3. Stock up the essentials. I don’t need to go crazy and buy the entire store but we should have enough supplies if I or my loved ones did get sick.
4. Subscribe to a grocery delivery service like Amazon Fresh or Instacart.
5. Eat clean and avoid junk foods. Make sure my body is healthy and has all the nutrients I need to fight viruses and potential threats.
6. Excercise. Don’t skip workouts due to social distancing. Work out at home, regularly.
7. Come up with ways to diversify my income stream using online (remote) sources.
8. Learn new skills that could still be useful during a recession.
9. Prepare my resume and portfolio in case I need to look for a new job.
10. Use this time to reconnect with family members and myself.

Repair: What are the things I could do if the worst things did happen?

1. Call my primary doctor if I experienced COVID-19 related symptoms.
2. Get tested and self-quarantine.
3. Stay at home and self-quarantine if my symptoms were mild. Avoid contact with any human being.
4. Seek medical attention if symptoms were serious.
5. Wear a mask at all times if I or my loved ones were sick.
6. Use online services to buy household essentials.
7. If I lost my job, first eliminate all non-essential spendings. Then start applying for jobs, at the same time try to find gigs online to create some sort of income stream.

Cost of Inaction: 6 months — what could happen if I didn’t take action to prevent these worst things from happening?

1. I could die of the virus or hunger.
2. My health could be completely wrecked. I’d have little to no energy for any activities.
3. I could be job-less and income-less.

Cost of Inaction: 1 year — what could happen if I didn’t take action to prevent these worst things from happening?

1. I could die of the virus or hunger.
2. My health could be completely wrecked. I’d have little to no energy for any activities.
3. I could still be job-less and income-less. I’d be living a very minimal life, trying to eliminate as much cost as possible. The quality of life would be downgraded significantly at this point.
4. I could be very depressed.

Cost of Inaction: 3 years — what could happen if I didn’t take action to prevent these worst things from happening?

1. I could die of the virus or hunger.
2. My health could be significantly worse. I could look like a zombie.
3. By that time, I probably have spent all my savings already. I would have trouble supporting basic needs. I could be homeless.
4. I could lose all my faith in humanity.

What did I learn from this exercise?

By the time I got to the cost of inaction part of the exercise, I started to realize how ridiculous they sound, and how irrational some of my fears are right now. Once I visualized the worst-case scenarios, they don’t seem to be too scary anymore.

I was also glad to realize that I have started doing most of the things on the Prevent list. It was easy to see I can just implement some simple actions today and they would be enough to stop the worse things. Some of the points might seem obvious and silly, but don’t underestimate the power of writing all down. The point of this exercise isn’t to picture how miserable my life could be. It completely changes the way I think about fears.

Everyone stay safe and well! No matter where you are.