Risking to Win: Irrational Risk Avoidance and Real Risk

Why does it seem as though too much of our psychic energy and some of our efforts are spent protecting ourselves from perceived risks rather than producing something of benefit? I call a purposeful risk, taken to achieve meaningful progress in creating a vision affirming result, "risking to win".
Although you may feel anxiety or stress when risking to win, it is purposeful risk and when successful worth the investment.
Perceived risks result in more worry than action but they often result in misplaced action. Popular media is a big part of it but human nature is also a large player. The media uses "threats" to get our attention in a world of information overload. Every storm has become a potential "storm of the century" to keep us watching and we are promised that "poisons in our own homes are killing us", but we must stay up till eleven O'clock to find out what they are.

When it comes to human nature, familiarity breeds comfort and comfort diminishes the sense of fear. We tend to grossly over value the risk posed to us by something that is new or little understood. We also are more likely to fear something sudden to those things that threaten us slowly over time. The same principles apply in business, but I will take them on in my business oriented blog: On the Case: Business Solutions rather than in this space.

Speaking of fear, I have a master’s degree in Applied and Mathematical Statistics, and lot of student's have related to me their fear of that one course in statistics they need for their degree. But given my background, I am not afraid to delve into the data and test my own assumptions. I am 51, so I decided to take a good look at the population data from the US Census and the death data from the Center for Disease Control for the most recent data for people aged 45 to 54. (Each age group is different in its death rate and the causes of those deaths.)

When it comes to death, other than meditating or praying to transcend my fears of the finite number of days that my body will survive on this planet, is there some meaningful data to guide my actions or reduce my anxiety?

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) publishes cause of death statistics. In the most recent data available online (2004) there were 180,000 deaths among people aged 45 - 54, my group. The total population of this group was 41.5 million people. (Therefore, 4,150 deaths in the CDC data equates to approximately 1 death in 10,000 people.)The survival rate my age group was 9,956 out of 10,000 or 99.56%.
Cancer at 50,000 and cardiovascular disease at 47,000 were by far the leading causes of death with chronic liver disease next at 7,700. The old adage of eating healthy food, exercising regularly, avoiding smoking and drinking alcohol in moderation seem to be the most important actions that you could take to move your survival rate upward.

All accidental deaths were totaled to 19,675 with 8,200 deaths due to accidental poisoning and 6,600 due to automobile accidents. I do not have the information on the poisoning data but suspect that it's primarily related to medication and it was a surprise to me. (This probably leads to the spate of local news stories when it is published annually.) In the intentional category the leader was suicide at 7,400.

At age 50, the real risks to our health and safety come from our lifestyle, our household and things that we are comfortable with such as driving our car around town. The violence, disasters and exotic diseases that the news is filled with total less than 2 deaths in 10,000. That is, if they were eliminated our survival rate would move from 99.56% to 99.58%. They are neither likely nor are they a significant relative risk factor.
Personalization of one's experience often distorts our assessment of risk as well as our fears. Airplane travel on a mile traveled basis is incredibly safer than automobile travel. We tend to drive every day and are in control of our own vehicle, so even reckless drivers tend to pass off being lucky as skillfulness and are comfortable with their own driving.

In relation to creating our own legacy and "risking to win", we also tend to associate going along with the group or what's popular with being safe. Employees in a large multinational corporation are far more likely to lose their jobs due to a business decision that has nothing to do with their work or the success of their work group or business unit than someone working in a small owner-operated business. Small businesses are at a greater risk in the short-term, but the risk is in the open, is being actively dealt with and your personal efforts can have direct tangible impact.

The mistaken belief that one is "safer" when you go to work everyday in a beautiful office with well dressed people is the same mistake people make when they believe they are safe in a crowded night-club or stadium. As long as everything goes well, you probably are but when there is a crisis, you are less safe and may be damaged by the panic of those around you.

I will visit risk again in this journey to gaining wisdom and creating a meaningful legacy. I would ask you to reflect upon your fears and evaluate the underlying risks. Since there is a finite end to our bodies, we live most fully when we "risk to win" rather than merely try to avoid risk or worry.