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Don't allow your fears to paralyze decisions
A Published Article on June 11, 2008 by Phil House
Don’t allow your fears to paralyze decisions
We are a society that is obsessed with security and safety at many levels, especially since 9/11. It dictates national policy from airport screening and medical care, to children’s toys and the use of polycarbonate water bottles.
I recently replaced the water bottles of members of my family because of safety concerns that have been announced in the media. I also renewed a life insurance policy on a family member and bought an extended warranty on a computer. I read Consumer Reports each month and check their annual consumer guide before making major purchases. My wife spoke to me last week about replacing our bike safety helmets, since they are getting old. It seems I am daily seeking after security and safety.
My youngest son told me recently about an emphasis on “risk management” in some of his university courses. Evidently this is even a college major and it is being recognized as a science, preparing young people for work in many disciplines and industries. I have regularly read in a popular news magazine, a page where numerous facts and figures are listed each week. These are sometimes interesting, occasionally amusing, and often surprising. Daily we read or hear in the media about the latest e-coli outbreak or some other risk to our health or welfare. Speculation then follows on how to reduce and control this risk.
This makes me wonder if we have overemphasized technology and placed too much faith in it, somehow believing that through technology we can reduce risk to the point that we no longer need worry about dealing with loss in our personal lives or businesses. Somehow this does not seem very realistic and appears to take some of the wonder and excitement out of daily living.
A couple of weeks ago I read a newly released book by Ben Carson, M.D., Take The Risk. As a pediatric neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins, he makes critical, split-second decisions everyday that affect the longevity and quality of people’s lives. Dr. Carson shared several truths about risk that are helpful to consider. 1) Everything is risky. 2) The more we know, the more we worry. 3) A lot of risks are not worth the worry. 4) We cannot eliminate all risk. 5) Minimizing risk is often the best we can do. 6) We each have to decide what risks are acceptable to us. 7) All risks are not bad. 8) We are all going to die of something eventually.
Dr. Carson recommends using a best/worst analysis when you face difficult decisions involving risk. This involves asking four simple questions: “What is the worst that could happen if I try ____?”; “What is the best that could happen if I try ___-_?”; “What is the worst that could happen if I don’t try ____?”; and, “What is the best that could happen if I don’t try ____?”
We need to be careful not to be frozen into indecision by our concern about security and safety. Some form of reasonable thought and manner of consideration needs to be given to dealing with risky situations and decisions, thereby improving the odds of coming up with a reasonable course of action, one that will hopefully minimize our risk of later regrets.
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