“Fear weaponizes your imagination against you.” - Jed McKenna

If you’ve been feeling a bit uneasy lately…
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​Carrying a low hum of dread you can’t quite place, as though something isn't right in the world and your nervous system is bracing for a disaster you can't see coming…
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…Please know:
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You’re not alone.
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Everyone is feeling it, right now.
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And my hope is that by the end of this email, you'll finally be able to exhale when you realize:
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Most of the fear you’re feeling isn’t even yours.
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Before we get to that, though, let’s make it clear:
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Fear is not the problem.
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Fear is nothing more than the 200-million-year-old threat-detection system our brain uses to keep us alive.
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It’s the built-in survival scanner that tells us to run when we see a lion, look both ways before crossing the street, and to shut the fxck up when your girl asks if you think her best friend is pretty.
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The problem is, that scanner has been getting picked up and button-smashed by threats that aren’t actually threatening.
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One moment, a “business coach” you’ve never even met is claiming “you have 12 months to make it.”
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The next, horrifying news about something that just happened half a world away.
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Then, while your brain stem is triggering a wave of adrenaline to help you escape this (very distant) new threat…
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An influencer even younger than you posts a photo with a [rented] Lambo and a chick who, let’s just say it, looks hotter than yours…
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[because she’s photoshopped and filtered and you’re doom scrolling first thing in the morning while your girl still has bed head and morning breath]
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…Which sends your limbic system into a spiral of self-doubt that immediately gets buried under an incoming avalanche of posts, reels, shorts, tweets, and 22 year old gurus all trying to hijack your attention by making you feel something.
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And that “something” is always some version of:
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Fear.
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Most days, by breakfast time, our brain has eaten a month’s worth of survival chemicals in response to things that don’t even threaten our immediate survival.
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It’s become so normal we don’t even feel it anymore.
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But that doesn’t mean it isn’t affecting every single moment of your entire life.
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A few weeks ago, I received a voice note from a coaching client in crisis:
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“I’m so overwhelmed right now. I’ve been watching a bunch of YouTube videos about AI and I feel like my business is nowhere near ready for the future.”
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(meanwhile, he was in the middle of his biggest month ever)
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My response:
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“Stop watching YouTube videos. All they’re doing is trying to convince you to solve problems you don’t even have.”
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Two days later:
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“Dude, I feel so much better now.”
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It sounds simple because it is.
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Modern technology has become a distribution system for fear — but that fear is almost never yours.
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It’s being triggered by people you don’t even know, in response to events that aren’t even happening to you.
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It’s society’s collective fear, being turned up to maximum volume.
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And all you need to do is turn the volume back down.
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In other words, and because the world hasn’t said this enough recently:
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You’re safe.
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And you have far, far more control than you think.
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- T
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P.S. This just went live:
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​How to focus so effortlessly distraction becomes impossible​

“Life always plays fair. If we must, we can.” - Jed McKenna