In a recent Instagram video, I talked about how you should pay attention to the cost of NOT taking some risk in life.
Most of us are taught to be extremely careful about taking any risk in life and to analyze all the potential downsides and dangers.
But no one tells us to be equally cautious about not taking risks.
They don't tell us that most people's greatest regrets in life are not the risks they've taken and failed, but those they never took and kept wondering "what if."
So I thought I could share a framework that you could use to assess the cost of not taking a risk next time you want to play it safe.
When faced with a risk that attracts you and scares you at the same time, ask yourself the following questions:
Time - How much time are you going to spend thinking "what if?" after not taking this risk?
Identity - How are you going to view yourself and your sense of agency if you don't take this risk?
Goals - Are there some goal you will have to give up on because you've not taken this risk?
Energy - How much energy are you going to spend envying those who have taken this risk?
Respect - Will you be able to respect yourself 10 years from now if you don't take this risk just because you don't want to leave your comfort zone?
Time, Identity, Goals, Energy, Respect. I promise the acronym TIGER is completely accidental. But you have to agree that it's cool.
Before you internalize and start using this framework, there are two important things to note.
-It should be clear from these questions that we are not talking about risk in terms of going cliff diving or putting everything on black in a casino.
We are talking about situations where you are faced with multiple paths you could take and you are at the same time drawn toward and afraid of making a potentially life-changing decision.
-The purpose of this framework is not to stop considering the potential dangers of taking a certain risk and becoming reckless. It is to bring balance to how you make important decisions. Because most people are governed by fear rather than growth.
But sometimes, life asks you not to play it safe.
Life is asking you to pick the thing that feels dangerous because that might be what is needed for you to go to your limits and hopefully beyond them.
And that's when we grow. When we are ready to leave the comfort and safety of the familiar and step into the unknown.
Thank you for reading.
P.S.
You still have a chance to get free access to my Consistency and Goal-Setting workshop if you buy my book on mastering consistency, The Art of Showing Up, before 11. 29.
Plus, you get my collection of the most life-enhancing ideas from philosophy and psychology, The Gold Pill, for free.
Even though it's not much of a risk to learn a life-changing skill for the price of two Starbucks coffees, I can run this offer through the TIGER framework for you.
Time - Instead of wasting time asking "what if," how many months or years are you going to waste on falling off track and having to start over?
Identity - How are you going to view yourself if you don't start showing up for the things that matter to you?
Goals - How many of your goals can you accomplish without being consistent? Zero.
Energy - How much energy are you going to spend envying people who are ahead of you, not because of talent or privilege, but because they have learned to simply show up day in and day out?
Respect - Will you be able to respect yourself 10 years from now if you haven't been showing up consistently for any of your goals?
Thank you for the support.
This framework has been helpful already. "Most people are governed by fear rather than growth". I know what I have to do now. Have a nice weekend David :)