You have most likely heard a lot about how important it is to visualize what you want to have happen. You have also most likely heard a lot about how important it is to not focus on what you don’t want to have happen, what you fear. Because of this, it may surprise you to hear that consciously playing out the outcome that you fear (the worst-case scenario) is also a very important tool to have in your tool box. It’s time to learn about fear visioning.
Some of us walking this earth are first class worriers. And for those who aren’t, you may still run into a situation in your life where there is a specific scenario that you fear. You may do all the positive visualization that you could possibly do and spend all day trying to orient your thoughts, words and actions towards what you want to manifest. But still, your mind wanders to those thoughts that cause you to feel fear. Still, you are living with this backdrop of anxiety, stress, resistance and avoidance. Like a vague phantom, it haunts you. When this is the case, the best thing to do is to take your consciousness and go straight into the very thing you are so very afraid of. To do fear visioning instead.
In order to fear vision, you define what you are afraid of, this is likely to be a specific scenario you are terrified of, a specific outcome you are desperate to avoid, maybe an action you are terrified to take or a conversation you are terrified to have. And you imagine or visualize yourself in that scenario as if it has already happened. Really be in it. Describe it in intense detail. Consider what details you see, hear and feel in that scenario. Write down every unwanted element of this thing that you fear. And everything “and then what” relative to each element happening. Some people like to go an extra step with this and rate each element on a scale from 1 to 10, 1 being it is a setback, 5 being it is life altering in some way and 10 being, it is life ending.
From there, you begin to reverse engineer the whole thing by problem solving the unwanted elements you become aware of. You basically come up with contingency plans for each element. Doing this is like building an internal safety net. Even if these contingency plans involve difficult choices that you would never want to make, having a contingency plan or a way out, provides incredible relief for your psyche. Doing this often causes you to realize that the worst-case scenario is actually not as impossibly bad as you thought it was. You may even start to see that it is manageable, where it felt totally unmanageable before. It demystifies your fears. It reveals to you what you really value and really care about and therefore what to prioritize and therefore where to really put your energy. It removes the shock of the unexpected. It also reveals to you some empowered steps you could take right now to make the worst-case scenario less likely to happen or less bad if it does happen. This kind of empowerment reduces your anxiety, which makes you clearer and more grounded. It tends to make you feel less overwhelmed, putting your nervous system in the place where it can pre-emptively learn to deal with and prepare for potential adversity. It pulls you out of resistance and avoidance mode. You will automatically stop dedicating so much of your unconscious energy to terror and thus have the energy to do what needs to be done; as well as to focus back on your goals and what you actually want to have happen. And as an added bonus, it actually puts you more firmly in the vibration of gratitude because an unwanted outcome implies you are somewhere worse than where you are now. And this can greatly increase your gratitude for and appreciation of where you are right now and the things you have right now.
Some things to consider when you are doing this process are: What are the odds of this actually happening? Relative to each unwanted element, if this really happened, what would I do then? How would I fix this one element or make the experience a bit better? Relative to each element, is this really up to me, do I have control over this, or is the reality that it isn’t up to me? What advice would I give to a friend who is in the exact same scenario? What resources can I use? What people can I involve and go to for help? What would I turn to in order to recover? What internal resources can I lean on if this situation did happen? What virtue of mine will be of benefit and a bonus? If this situation did happen, what would go up in ashes or end that I’m glad would go up in ashes or end? What elements, in order of most important to least are the most important to me? What small steps might I take that would reduce the likelihood that this will happen? "What single action could I take today that would make this worst-case scenario mathematically less likely to happen? If I am overwhelmed by possibilities, what one thing could I do today that would make everything else easier or irrelevant? Who has faced this situation before that I could reach out to for advice?
If what you fear is taking an action or having a conversation, you might consider: What is the consequence of saying or doing nothing? If I play out continuing to do nothing, what happens in a day, a week, a month, a year, five years? What is it costing me to postpone this?
So that you understand how this works, here is an example. Mason quit his job a while back to start a business in motion graphics marketing. He took on a client who refused to pay after months of work put in by Mason and his head designer. In fact, his client is threatening him with a full-blown legal fight if Mason tries to make him pay according to the contract he signed. This is a disaster because they were counting on this money and already blew through their budget. Mason has been sick to his stomach with worry. So, let’s look at what happens when Mason decides to do fear visioning. Mason first defines his worst-case scenario. He imagines slipping deep into debt. Being unable to pay any of his staff and them abandoning the company to go work for someone else. Facing an online smear campaign against him and his company, making it impossible to get new clients. Having his car repossessed. Not being able to keep his apartment and having to move back in with his parents at 37 years old. Having to take a job where he feels humiliated, has no creative license and is financially limited again.
From there, Mason takes each element of his nightmare and really plays them out. For example, he imagines sinking into debt and he asks himself, and because I sink into debt, what would happen? For him, the answer is: My credit score is destroyed. To this he asks himself: And because my credit score is destroyed, what would happen? To this his answer is: I could not obtain a business loan that I could afford the interest and so on and so forth.
From there, Mason lists the elements of his worst-case scenario and rates them from 1 to 10. For example, he lists being unable to pay his staff at a 4 because he knows people in the Philippines which can be hired on the spot, they just have to be micro managed to do things right. He lists moving back in with his parents as a 7 because he knows that he would sink into an “ashamed of himself depression” and would likely stay in that terrible space because his father is critical and competitive. Failing at this business would give his father even more occasion to cut him down. Because of this, Mason sees a lot about what is most important to him. He sees that living an independent life is most important to him. More important than having to take a job for another company. This in and of itself reduces the tower of resistance he had to the unwanted scenario of having to take another job. This tells him that his personal independence in life is what he should be putting his energy into protecting at all costs.
With each element, he starts to come up with contingency plans. For example, when he imagines the worst-case scenario of not being able to keep his house, but realizes that moving back in with his parents is not something he can do, he starts to think of alternatives. He realizes that he could temporarily take a work away job, or a house caretaking job. Something totally unrelated to his field even. This would give him somewhere to stay while planning his next move. Or for example, when he takes the worst-case scenario of his credit score plummeting, he can think of some ideas. One is to call his credit card company and request that they increase his limit. Another is to get his sister, who he has a great relationship with to add him as an authorized user, so he can inherit her positive spending history. After going through each element, Mason is feels calmer and more centered. He isn’t in fight or flight mode anymore.
With his contingency plans in place, he then trouble shoots the situation as it stands today. Mason decides that a law suit with his client would be a worse outcome, one where he is likely to lose more money than he would make on the project. So, Mason starts trouble shooting the issue of the company money now being so shockingly low. He knows that the people who work for him would probably rather sacrifice their own paychecks for a month than have to find new jobs all together. So, he holds that on the backburner as the worst of the contingency plans. He thinks of the idea of putting all his time and energy into securing an anchor client, for a small project that he can do himself without his team. He would lose sleep for sure, but he could make the money to float the company while they are working on other projects that will bring in good revenue. He also decides to find a business mentor that has experience in his field to involve him in the situation.
Mason also asks himself the question, what one action could I take today that would make this whole situation less likely to happen? The answer is: Write a sincere e-mail to the client about wanting them to be pleased and suggesting working hand in hand for an intensive period of time with someone from their company to make sure this happens. This is a step Mason would not have been willing to take before, because it means compromising his artistic agency, but at this point, this choice is the lesser of all evils.
This fear visioning exercise calmed Mason down relative to his future. It drastically reduced his stress. It taught him what is most valuable to him. It pushed him to create productive contingency plans. It made him aware that even if the business fails, he still has over 10 years of experience as a motion graphics designer. And that his resume is actually better now because he has added "Motion Graphics Business Development and Ownership" to his skill set. So really, the worst-case scenario is actually manageable. And it caused him to be able to effectively trouble shoot the situation at hand.
In case you are interested, because the client did not take him up on his offer, Mason did end up deciding that the best course of action was to take on a one-off motion graphics project and work nearly nonstop for three weeks in order to float the company financially. But he did not lose his company. Having his contingency plan in place, and releasing resistance to the phantom worst-case scenario, enabled him to focus all of his energy where it was most effective. And he wasn’t in the hell of panic the whole time doing it.
The conscious practice of fear visioning is very different than catastrophizing. Catastrophizing is a largely unconscious and unstructured process. Because it is so unconscious, it feels involuntary and tends to loop and be repetitive, not leading to empowerment and not creating a reduction in terror. Rather, it leads to an increase in terror and a kind of paralysis from overthinking and overanalyzing. Fear visioning on the other hand is highly conscious and structured. It is specifically done as an exercise that will reduce your terror and help you to solve the problems you imagine. Leaders in all kinds of sectors use some version of fear visioning in order to identify problems and pit falls before they happen, a strategic kind of foresight that leads to early risk mitigation. This in turn leads to greater chances for success.
When you bring the feared outcome to light, it becomes less frightening. It transforms abstract panic into concrete, proactive plans and action steps. It reduces your fear of the unknown. It brings you out of paralysis, so you can create movement in the right direction. And because it is such a powerful process for releasing resistance, it makes your positive visualizations, your intentional manifestations and your proactive actions so much more effective.
