What are you afraid of?

No, not like spiders and clowns.

Like, what are you most afraid of in daily life? What keeps you up at night?

It’s a question that you probably never ask another person.

And even if you’ve asked yourself this, you most definitely have never answered it truthfully.

I was listening to Theo Von’s interview with the Aussie actor Chris Hemsworth, and Chris was surprisingly a really deep thinker guy. I could’ve taken a number of things he said and ran with a motivating diary post, but this one stuck out.

Side note: I know I said in a letter a few weeks ago that Brad Pitt was the most handsome man on Earth, but holy sh*t I was wrong. That prestigious award belongs to Mr. Chris Hemsworth, my lord. Theo seemed to think so too.

When I asked myself “what I was most afraid of,” I didn’t have a great answer.

But I still felt a little scared, so I knew there was something and it made me start thinking.

Chris said he asked his father, who had Alzheimer’s, this question, and he was surprised by his answer…

Instead of maybe “forgetting things” or simply “death”, his dad was just worried about being a “burden” to his family members who take care of him.

So, Chris was really thankful he asked his father this because he was able to engage with him in different ways. Moving forward, he kept his dad’s fear in mind, and they had a better relationship because of it.

Instead of “Hey man, how ya doin?” A “hey, what keeps you up at night? What are you afraid of?” can go a long way toward a more productive answer.

And thinking out loud on this newsletter, which is what a diary is all about, my answers tend to lean toward work and my career.

I want to be “successful”, but I think defining that is a challenge in itself. What exactly does success look like? Starting a company and having a mansion on Nantucket in 25 years? I mean yeah probably, that sounds incredible.

Or is it just having a really good salary at a job I really love and putting good food on the table (maybe just In-N-Out burger every night) for my future family and children?

Maybe it’s just winning my fantasy football league every single season?

There are levels to happiness.

But my biggest fear is not accomplishing those career goals that are somewhere in my head that I need to write down at some point.

Thinking even deeper about my fears, I definitely have some more I won’t write about here and bore my girlfriend with as soon as we’re done watching Ted Lasso.

1. Ask yourself this question and try to be really honest with yourself. What truly scares you? Maybe shoot me an email response with your answer if you’re feeling lonely about it.

It will hopefully inspire you to wake the hell up and do something to protect yourself from this fear. Change something for the better.

And 2. Ask a close buddy or family member this question. I am sure you’ll be surprised by their answer. And they will likely be relieved to talk about it out loud.

So, what are you afraid of?

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