Fearlessness is a loaded word. We associate it with superheroes and stoic leaders—people who seem to be born without the gene for fear. We look at our own trembling hands and racing hearts and conclude that we are not, and never will be, fearless. But this is a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to be courageous. Fearlessness is not the absence of fear. It is the decision to act in its presence. It is a choice.
No one illustrates this more powerfully than Mark Watney in Andy Weir’s The Martian. Over the course of 549 sols, Watney faces a relentless onslaught of life-threatening disasters. He feels fear—acutely and constantly. The difference is what he does with that fear. He doesn't let it paralyze him. He acknowledges it, feels it, and then he makes a conscious choice to focus on what he can control.
This philosophy is perfectly encapsulated in a message he records, reflecting on the psychology of survival: "At some point, everything's gonna go south on you... everything's going to go south and you're going to say, this is it. This is how I end. Now you can either accept that, or you can get to work".
This is perhaps the most profound and practical definition of fearlessness ever written. It strips away all the mythology and boils courage down to a single, binary choice. When the moment of crisis hits—the bad diagnosis, the unexpected layoff, the devastating rejection—your mind will tell you a story: "This is it. This is the end...". In that moment, you have a choice. You can accept the story, collapse under its weight, and let the fear win. Or you can get to work.
"Getting to work" doesn't mean ignoring the fear or pretending the crisis isn't real. It means shifting your focus from the terrifying, uncontrollable outcome to the immediate, controllable action. For Watney, "getting to work" meant patching a hole in his helmet with duct tape. It meant calculating new food rations. He didn't know if any of it would ultimately save him, but he knew it was better than doing nothing. Action is the antidote to fear-induced paralysis.
This framework is incredibly empowering because it makes fearlessness accessible to everyone. It’s not a personality trait you either have or you don't. It's a muscle you build. Each time you face a fear, acknowledge the story it’s telling you, and then deliberately choose to take one small, productive action, you are strengthening that muscle. You are casting a vote for your own agency.
The story of Mark Watney is a testament to the fact that our circumstances don't get the final say. We do. And we exercise that power not through grand gestures of heroism, but through the simple, dogged, and profoundly courageous choice to get to work.
Mindful Steps to Cultivate Action-Based Fearlessness
Building the "get to work" muscle requires practice. You can train yourself to choose action over paralysis when fear takes hold. Here are three mindful exercises to help you cultivate this essential skill.
1. Conduct a "Pre-Mortem"
The quote forces us to confront the inevitability that things will go south. Choose a current goal or project that is causing you some anxiety. Now, imagine that it has failed spectacularly. Write out the story of this failure, and then start a new section called "Getting to Work". For each element of the failure you identified, brainstorm one or two actions you could take to either prevent it or to mitigate the damage if it happened. This exercise takes the vague, terrifying specter of "failure" and turns it into a set of concrete, manageable problems.
2. Identify Your "Single Next Action"
When you're in the grip of fear, the idea of "getting to work" can feel overwhelming. Your mantra in these moments should be: "What is my single next action?" The action doesn't have to solve the whole problem. It just has to be the very next physical step you can take. Choosing a single, tiny action is a powerful declaration that you are not accepting the end. Fearlessness is often just a series of very small steps.
3. Create Your "Courage Resume"
We tend to have an amnesia for our own strength. A "Courage Resume" is a document where you record your past victories over fear. List every single time in your life you were scared and "got to work" anyway. For each entry, describe the situation, the fear you felt, and the action you took. This is not a list of your achievements; it's a list of your brave choices. It is a testament to the fact that you are already, in your own way, fearless.
Mark Watney's courage to "get to work" allowed him to solve the ultimate communication problem: how to signal his humanity across millions of miles. Next, we’ll look at his unique approach to communication, and how we can all learn to "colonize" the space between two minds with meaning and spirit.
