In last Friday’s email, I said, “Unrecognized risk gets most of the attention, but believing in a risk that isn’t real is equally dangerous and often more damaging.”
Members of our Daily Discipline Community asked me to expand on that topic. Instead of keeping it limited to the community, I’m sharing it here for all of you who are not members. But just in case, join our free private community so you don’t miss out next time.
Ok, so about unrecognized risk vs believing in a risk that isn’t real.
There are two main ways to miscalculate risk:
- Fail to see real risk
- Believe in risk that isn’t real.
Here’s the simplest way to understand each and its cost.
When you fail to see real risk, that risk punishes you. Maybe not immediately, but eventually. That’s how real risk works. With enough exposure, it will get you one day. It’s like walking on ice you don’t know is thin.
When you believe in risk that isn’t real, you punish yourself. You avoid imagined risks that were never real enough to damage you. You aim low, don’t try, and cut yourself off from rewarding experiences. It’s like refusing to walk across thick ice because you’ve convinced yourself you’re going to fall in.
You cannot perfectly calculate risk. No one can. But you can get better at it.
You can get more disciplined at evaluating risk, more skilled at recognizing real risk, and more courageous to discard your fears based on fake risks.
Event + Response = Outcome. Do the work.
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