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.
Showing posts with label Worry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Worry. Show all posts
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Thursday, June 18, 2009
A Creative Life is NOT a Stress Free Life
One should never confuse the meaningfulness that a creative life can bring with there being a lack of stress or tension.
There is a famous story attributed to Norman Vincent Peale, where he offered to show a man suffering from anxiety, a place where there were 50,000 people without a worry in the world. He drove the man to a hill overlooking the largest cemetery in Brooklyn. Peale makes the point that no one alive is completely free from stress or worry.
The Buddha's famous saying is; "All Life is Suffering". In that everything you love including your own life will pass away and the loss of those beloved leads to great suffering. The Buddha's advice is to transcend the suffering not to take a pass on living or on loving.
Dale Carnegie's great book; "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" has sold tens of millions of copies over the past century.
What does it all mean? What does it say about worry and stress?
The act of choosing to create is an empowering act. It is a stark reminder that you are alive and you are not merely a reflection of external circumstances. You can choose to create whether your are strong or weak, rich or poor, healthy or ill. You can choose to create without knowing how to reach your goal or even knowing if your goal is reasonable or reachable.
Making a choice moves you from the dependent or reactive world into the independent or responsive world. In his book, "Man's Search for Meaning", Viktor Frankl speaks eloquently of the difference between a reaction and a response. While he had no control of his environment or the circumstances he encountered by choosing his response to each situation he could affirm his humanity and values. For both punishment and to force compliance the inmates at Auschwitz were periodically lined and counted off. The unlucky in these forced counts were either abused or executed as a lesson for all. Dr. Frankl never used his connections to escape a count-off as he truly believed that none of the prisoners deserved the treatment nor was his life any more valuable than his fellow prisoners. He found peace in accepting his circumstances and choosing an honorable path based upon his own values.
When you choose your response, your actions become the expression of your values, your intelligence, your passion and your creativity. Often, the only difference between a response and a reaction is a brief hesitation but sometimes a the proper response requires much reflection and some soul searching.
As we move from a response to a situation to your response to living a meaningful and good life in this world, we peel another layer deeper into this same onion. A fundamental choice to create or to take a creative and independent stance creates its own supporting structure. Robert Fritz in his book, The Path of Least Resistance uses the analogy of a rubber band to discuss the structural tension formed by the choice to create.
When one fails to choose to create, the stresses and worries of the world exist but lack direction like a loose rubber band. When one chooses to create a desired future result, a structure begins to form along the lines of difference between current reality and the future result. It is as if the rubber band begins to be stretched between your two thumbs. Clarity about the desired results and honesty about current reality support a clear structure and add tension around this structure.
A creative life is a full life in a world of uncertainty. Yet, by choosing to create, we have empowered ourselves to be both more independent and responsive to the world. The structure induced by our choices, our vision and our honesty actually support us by focusing our actions.
There is a famous story attributed to Norman Vincent Peale, where he offered to show a man suffering from anxiety, a place where there were 50,000 people without a worry in the world. He drove the man to a hill overlooking the largest cemetery in Brooklyn. Peale makes the point that no one alive is completely free from stress or worry.
The Buddha's famous saying is; "All Life is Suffering". In that everything you love including your own life will pass away and the loss of those beloved leads to great suffering. The Buddha's advice is to transcend the suffering not to take a pass on living or on loving.
Dale Carnegie's great book; "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" has sold tens of millions of copies over the past century.
What does it all mean? What does it say about worry and stress?
The act of choosing to create is an empowering act. It is a stark reminder that you are alive and you are not merely a reflection of external circumstances. You can choose to create whether your are strong or weak, rich or poor, healthy or ill. You can choose to create without knowing how to reach your goal or even knowing if your goal is reasonable or reachable.
Making a choice moves you from the dependent or reactive world into the independent or responsive world. In his book, "Man's Search for Meaning", Viktor Frankl speaks eloquently of the difference between a reaction and a response. While he had no control of his environment or the circumstances he encountered by choosing his response to each situation he could affirm his humanity and values. For both punishment and to force compliance the inmates at Auschwitz were periodically lined and counted off. The unlucky in these forced counts were either abused or executed as a lesson for all. Dr. Frankl never used his connections to escape a count-off as he truly believed that none of the prisoners deserved the treatment nor was his life any more valuable than his fellow prisoners. He found peace in accepting his circumstances and choosing an honorable path based upon his own values.
When you choose your response, your actions become the expression of your values, your intelligence, your passion and your creativity. Often, the only difference between a response and a reaction is a brief hesitation but sometimes a the proper response requires much reflection and some soul searching.
As we move from a response to a situation to your response to living a meaningful and good life in this world, we peel another layer deeper into this same onion. A fundamental choice to create or to take a creative and independent stance creates its own supporting structure. Robert Fritz in his book, The Path of Least Resistance uses the analogy of a rubber band to discuss the structural tension formed by the choice to create.
When one fails to choose to create, the stresses and worries of the world exist but lack direction like a loose rubber band. When one chooses to create a desired future result, a structure begins to form along the lines of difference between current reality and the future result. It is as if the rubber band begins to be stretched between your two thumbs. Clarity about the desired results and honesty about current reality support a clear structure and add tension around this structure.
A creative life is a full life in a world of uncertainty. Yet, by choosing to create, we have empowered ourselves to be both more independent and responsive to the world. The structure induced by our choices, our vision and our honesty actually support us by focusing our actions.
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