Fear of Risk

The people who exhibit Fear of Risk don’t usually manifest as such. Their response will come off as a much more well thought-out and considered response. It will sound completely reasonable: “Seems a little ‘iffy’ to me. It’s much safer if we keep doing what we’ve always done” and THAT’S what makes Fear of Risk so insidious.

This article continues the break down of dealing with the individual fears that prevent people from taking action on ideas with today’s topic Fear of Risk.

There is an amount of risk in everything we do

This is why it sounds so damned reasonable when someone (or you) uses risk as the excuse to either delay making a decision to move forward on an idea or to decline involvement at all — there is an element of risk in everything.

If you only accepted a project based on having zero risk, you’d never cross a street for fear of being hit by a car. You’d never drive a car for fear of having an accident. You’d never ask anyone out on a date because of the risk of them saying No. You’d never cook dinner because of the risk you’d burn it. And you’d never even play a board game because of the risk of losing (and that goes double for the actual game of Risk).

Make decisions based on your level of risk

Since there is risk in everything you do, you need to make your choices on which projects to work on based on the level of risk you perceive. Jumping out of an airplane has a high level of risk that you will not survive, jumping out of an airplane with a parachute on your back holds a reduced amount of risk, but doing a tandem jump with an experienced skydiver possessing the experience of a hundred jumps holds even less risk.

You might also base your decision to move forward on a project based on the level of reward that comes with the project as compared to the level of risk you’ll have to face.

It is typically true that the higher the risk, the greater the reward.
Choose accordingly.