What is the 10-10-10 rule?

Suzy Welch's decision rule: when paralysed, ask how you will feel about this decision in 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years. The 10-minute discomfort is real, but rarely survives the 10-year view. The module on this page returns a verdict based on what you write in the 10-year answer — regret, indifference, or pride.

What is the amygdala diagnostic?

A 4-option pick that helps you separate useful fear (the real cliff) from three kinds of noise : pattern-matching from past trauma, status anxiety dressed as physical risk, and the rarer values-violation alarm. Each kind gets a different response. The wrong move with the wrong type of fear is most of what people mean when they say "I made a fear-based decision".

What is the Bezos regret-minimisation framework?

Jeff Bezos's mental model from 1994 when he was deciding whether to leave a high-paying job to start Amazon. He projected himself forward to age 80 and asked: which option would I regret more? Future-regret beat present-discomfort by a wide margin. The Decision Compass module here asks you to rate both, then returns a tailored verdict — take it, lean in, let it go, or genuinely close.

What is the Impostor audit on this page?

A short 8-item rating based on the Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale, validated in clinical and organisational psychology research since 1985. Each item is rated 1-5 (rarely to very true); the score lands in one of four bands (few, moderate, frequent, intense) with a tailored response for each. The frequent and intense bands are most common among high performers — you are in good company.

Concept 11 · Universal · Marcus Aurelius · Tim Ferriss · Bezos · Sandberg

Almost every adult is constrained by two or three fears they have never written down.

Q: What is Fear-Setting?

Tim Ferriss's structured alternative to goal-setting. You define the worst-case outcomes of an action you've been avoiding, what you could do to prevent each, what you would do to recover if they happened, the benefits of acting, and the cost of not acting at 6 months, 1 year, and 3 years. Ferriss calls it the single most important exercise he runs every quarter. The page returns analysis based on the balance of fear-weight vs benefit-weight in what you write.

This page is the writing-down. Eight diagnostics, each built around one principle: every module returns a specific, personalised answer based on what you actually wrote. Not "saved ✓". Not a score on a 1-10 scale. An analysis. Marcus Aurelius would have called this an exercise in premeditatio. Ferriss calls it Fear-Setting. Bezos called it regret-minimisation. Goggins calls it callusing the mind. The names differ; the work does not.

On this page: Fear-Setting (Ferriss, the flagship), the Three Fears taxonomy, an Amygdala diagnostic, the 10-10-10 rule (Welch), the "what would you do if you weren't afraid?" reflection (Sandberg), an Impostor audit (the validated Clance scale), the Decision Compass (Bezos), a daily fear journal with consecutive-day streak, and the Voices of Fear & Courage shuffler. Read your own answers carefully. The page reads you back.

Begin with Fear-Setting → Today's journal entry

Chapter 1 · Fear-Setting (Tim Ferriss)

"Define your fears, instead of your goals."

Ferriss's structured alternative to goal-setting, run every quarter. The decision is one you've been avoiding for a while. The columns are DEFINE the worst that could happen, PREVENT each, and REPAIR if it happens anyway. Plus the benefits of acting, and the cost of not acting at three time horizons. The page reads your answers back to you.

The decision you've been avoiding

1 · DEFINE

The worst that could happen — be specific, vivid.

2 · PREVENT

What you could do to reduce each.

3 · REPAIR

If the worst happened, how would you recover?

Benefits of acting (what becomes possible)

Cost of not acting — at three horizons

6 months from now 1 year from now 3 years from now

Chapter 2 · The three fears

Every fear is one of three.

Pain. Loss. The Unknown. Each takes a different protocol. The most common mistake people make is running a loss-protocol against a pain-fear, or a pain-protocol against an unknown-fear, and concluding the work doesn't help. Name your biggest current fear. Pick the type. The page returns the specific protocol for that type.

Name your biggest current fear

Which type is it?

Pain
Physical, emotional, or social. The discomfort of the actual experience — getting hurt, being rejected, the awkwardness. Loss
Of status. Of a possession. Of a person. Of an identity. The fear that you will end up with less than you have. Unknown
The fear of what might happen. The most malleable and the most expandable — your mind keeps inventing new things to add to it.

Chapter 3 · The Amygdala diagnostic

Is your fear signal, or noise?

The amygdala fires the same alarm whether the threat is a wolf or a bad email. Pick which of four reads applies to your current fear-spike — the page returns a tailored move. Three of the four are noise. One is genuine signal. Knowing which dramatically changes what to do.

The situation

Most honestly — which read fits?

Survival-useful. The cliff is real. Listen — there is actual danger. Pattern-matching past trauma. This feels like something that happened before — but the current situation isn't the previous one. Status anxiety dressed as risk. The fear is what other people will think. The body can't tell the difference between social rejection and a wolf. A genuine values-violation alarm. Doing this would betray something you care about more than the prize.

Chapter 4 · The 10-10-10 rule (Suzy Welch)

10 minutes. 10 months. 10 years.

When paralysed by a decision, ask: how will I feel about this in each of three timeframes? The 10-minute discomfort is real, but it rarely survives the 10-year view. The page reads your three answers and returns a verdict. Use words like "I'll regret it," "I won't care," or "I'll be glad I did" — they're the keys that unlock the reading.

Chapter 5 · "What would you do if you weren't afraid?" (Sandberg)

Five domains. The gap between what you wrote and what you live is the work.

Sheryl Sandberg's question made specific. You don't have to do any of these things — but you do need to know what they are. Skip the domain where the answer is hardest. The page reads that skip back to you.

Chapter 7 · The Decision Compass (Bezos, 1994)

"I projected myself forward to age 80 and looked back."

Bezos's regret-minimisation framework. The decision that founded Amazon. Describe one option you're considering not taking, then rate the regret you'd feel: now, and at 80. If the 80-year regret is significantly higher than today's, that is the answer.

Chapter 8 · The fear journal

One sentence a day. For as long as you can.

Marcus Aurelius wrote his Meditations for himself, every night, for years. This is the short version: today, I was afraid of ___, and I ___. The streak counts only consecutive days — but the value is not the streak. The value is the line itself.

Consecutive days

Miss a day, the count resets. The point is the writing, not the number.

Chapter 9 · Voices of fear & courage

Marcus. Seneca. Frank Herbert. Ferriss. Goggins. Sandberg. Anaïs Nin. Mary Oliver.

Each refresh draws another line. The first quote you'll get is Frank Herbert's Litany Against Fear. Almost every adult who has read it knows it by heart.

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

A vote of confidence

If this concept moved you, leave your mark.

A hanko (判子) is a personal seal — used in Japan for letters, contracts, and works of calligraphy. Stamp yours below to publicly endorse this concept. The wall is the testimony.

0 seals stamped

No seals yet. Be the first.

"It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live."

— Marcus Aurelius · Meditations · attributed · ~170 CE

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