The Sunday Session:
'A one minute read to set you up for the week ahead'
The Risk of Familiarity:
Not Making a Decision is Still a Decision!
Read Time : 1 minute
‘We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one.’
Confucius
Navigating life is extremely difficult. Turbulence, as a result, is inevitable and within the maelstrom that is modern life we can find ourselves accepting jobs, committing to relationships, continuing with habits, staying in environments, and persisting with practices that we know do not serve us.
Worse yet, many of us, due to the familiarity of the situation, accept these conditions. Although we know that the net impact of the situation will be negative and the personal growth opportunities zero, we persist without any consideration of implementing change.
The assumption that ‘things could be worse’ and the risk involved with enacting changes keeps us in jobs we don’t enjoy and relationships that don’t help us grow. These risks are real:
- If we leave our job, we will have to update our resumé, attend interviews, learn new skills, and venture into the unknown.
- If we decide to leave a friendship behind, we will have to accept that the support of that person will no longer be there, there will be periods of alone time, and there will be some implications within the further social circle.
This is the side of the equation that we tend to look at. What we forget to consider is the risk of staying.
The risk of staying at a job we hate or in a toxic relationship is immeasurable. The loathing, detestation and bitterness that we currently feel will grow exponentially and within 5 years you’ll be just like you are now, except that a lot more of what is good about you will be gone and a lot more of what is terrible about you will be amplified.
You’ll age 10 years within 5 years and the toll on your soul and spirit will be irreparable.
Pursuing a new job or ending a relationship comes with terrible risk – but there is also terrible risk in not pursuing the new job or ending that relationship.
The liberating thought with this conundrum is that you are screwed whatever you do. There is no secure path – risk is everywhere.
Two factors, however, stack the deck in your favour:
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You get to pick the risk – You choose your poison.
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You are much tougher than you think.
By confronting the risk forthrightly and head on, you have the resilience to handle the risk and therein lies the security.
As Simon Sarris’ Twitter feed enquires:
‘If you know what you want, why are you waiting?’