We all face fears, which is perfectly normal, unless they control our lives. Even if you do have your fears under control, you might be interested in taking things to the next level – perhaps a career change, a new relationship, or moving to another country.

If your brain keeps firing off the worst case scenario, and then leaving you retreating to your comfort zone, your fears might be holding you back. My philosophy is that all our thoughts can be altered, understood, or accepted if we just ask ourselves the right questions (life altering questions ^[1]).

1. Define your nightmare, the absolute worst that could happen if you did what you are considering.

2. What steps could you take to repair the damage or get things back on the upswing, even if temporarily?

3. What are the outcomes or benefits, both temporary and permanent, of more probable scenarios?

4. If … [your worst fear happened now, what could you do to get things under] … control?

5. What are you putting off out of fear?

6. What is it costing you-financially, emotionally, and physically-to postpone action?

7. What are you waiting for?

- The 4-Hour Work Week ^[2] by Timothy Ferris

Instead of simply writing the first thing that pops into your head, you could get a deeper understanding by spending time on each question. Open up a fresh Word (or OneNote) document, head it with one question, and brain storm for 8 minutes. In under one hour, you might surprise yourself with how ridiculous your fear was and have the courage to go through with it.

You can get The 4-Hour Work Week ^[2] at amazon.com, or try your luck at John Chow’s signed book giveaway ^[3].[edit: contest over]

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