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As humans, we have extremely powerful imaginations. Our imaginations allow us to build things in our minds before we create them with our hands. We envision, plan, strategise, and execute. For example, a chess player uses their imagination to consider all the different moves that could arise from a given position. Our imagination is a potent tool but can also be a source of fear.
Evolutionists argue that imagining potential dangers has kept us safe from predators. For instance, when walking alone down a dark alley in the wrong part of town, it feels reasonable to be fearful. Why? Because you’re imagining that someone could emerge from the shadows to harm you. Your imagination helps you recognise potential threats.
Catastrophising
However, too often, our imagination shifts from realistic concerns to catastrophic ones. We start to imagine the worst. We construct a fantasy world where every possible disaster has already occurred. Without evidence, our imagination—fuelled by fear—can run wild, creating our worst nightmares.
But we can turn this nightmare scenario to our advantage. Imagining the worst can be a powerful tool to release ourselves from fear and step into a better future. What do I mean by this? Let’s explore an escalating catastrophic scenario related to work.
Imagine you have a presentation to prepare for an important sales meeting, but you’re struggling. Suddenly, you’re caught in a catastrophic fear loop.
You envision attending the presentation and appearing foolish in front of the client and your boss. You worry that you won’t win the client over and your boss will take you aside and say, “You’re just not good enough. You’re fired.”
You are out of a job. Dejected, you return home to your spouse, who says, “You’ve lost your job? I can’t handle your failure anymore; our marriage is over. Get out of the house.” You get divorced, lose your home, never see your children again, and find yourself sleeping in your car. The police discover you, charge you with vagrancy and leave you with a criminal record. Your funds run out, and now you’re begging on the streets.
You’ve constructed a catastrophic scenario from that initial stress over a sales presentation. But by imagining the worst, you can now tell yourself, “If I don’t complete this presentation perfectly, I won’t become homeless.” When you compare the catastrophe to reality, it starts to seem absurd. How could failing to deliver a perfect presentation lead to homelessness? And what steps can you take to avoid that outcome?
By imagining the worst, you empower yourself to envision other, less catastrophic scenarios. This allows you to shake off fear and reimagine a different future. You’ve given client presentations many times before, and even if this one isn’t perfect, it will still be good enough. If the client doesn’t buy, it likely says more about them than your presentation. If your boss isn’t pleased, you can explain the challenges—perhaps the product, the price, or the client’s interest—and try again with another client.
You won’t leave the building destitute, rejected by your spouse, and sleeping in your car. Imagining the worst can help you visualise a future that may be less than ideal but still manageable.
In my own life, I remember my parents constantly telling me, “Charles, you need to get a proper job. You need a proper job with a pension.” My father, an academic employed at the University of Cambridge for his entire working life, had a proper job with a university pension that gave him security. Even five years before he died, he would ask me, “Have you sorted out your pension? Do you have a proper pension?”
He imagined that without a pension, I would end up as a lonely older man, pushing a shopping trolley around the streets of Cambridge, begging for my next meal, and sleeping in someone’s shed at night. That was his fear.
However, the reality for many of the senior professionals I work with is that their pension pot still needs to be higher despite saving for a pension throughout their working lives.
The kinds of final salary pension schemes that guarantee benefits of £40,000 or £50,000 a year and continue to provide for your spouse after your death are gone forever for almost everybody.
Only some today receive inflation-proofed final salary benefit pension schemes outside government services.
I hear people talk about “Pension Armageddon” and the truth is you won’t have enough unless you start imagining a different future. This understanding can encourage you to act and change your future rather than letting circumstances dictate your position.
Conclusions
You can subvert fear by deliberately catastrophising to create scenarios that are so extreme that they are laughable. After imagining the worst, you can start with a more realistic set of scenarios and consider how best to manage your risks. Make fear your friend and then stab it in the back!
Charles McLachlan is the founder of FuturePerfect and on a mission to transform the future of work and business. The Portfolio Executive programme is a new initiative to help executives build a sustainable and impactful second-half-career. Creating an alternative future takes imagination, design, organisation and many other thinking skills. Charles is happy to lend them to you.