“Fear-setting” is the counter-intuitive but useful practice of articulating all the things that could go wrong. Counter-intuitive because it sounds inherently negative. Useful because deciding upfront that you could live with the worst realistic scenario removes a huge barrier to success. At the very least it makes failure less scary.
Stoics over the ages have set aside days (or longer) during which they lived under the most minimalist conditions, all the while asking, “is this the condition I so feared?”
“Named your fear must be, before banish it you can”
– Yoda
I love this, In fact, just last week I bought, for only a dollar on Amazon, the Dover Thrift Edition of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, a stoic, the last of the great Roman emperors. Also, my wife and I have been watching Little House On the Prairie episodes together with our 8 and 10-yr-old girls, and talking about being frugal and grateful for what we have. Luxury is an addictive vice, and minimalism is a great practice for cleansing the soul of this addiction.