When is a risk worth taking and when should it be avoided? When common sense fails because situations are too complex, how do we find a simple solution?
(1) Does the risk out way the reward?
(2) Is there more to risk by not taking the risk?
There are two types of risks to take into consideration: (A) The risk of causing harm or being held accountable for a wrong done; (B) The risk of missing out on something.
Risk A: Should I drive home dunk?
When your judgment’s impaired it might seem easier not to care or give a damn. This is why it’s important to make these decisions before you do something stupid because your intelligence is compromised. (I assume you’re not drunk now because then you wouldn’t be seeing words on a page, you’d be seeing a blur or some word-blur hybrid. Blurds)
Reward: Get home without crashing into anything.
Risk: (Take worse case scenarios into consideration just to be on the safe side) When I was in high school there was a rally held to discuss drunk driving. They showed a video of a girl who had been driving home one night when a drunk driver came into her lane and hit her. Her car burst into flames and she was badly burned. “Badly burned” is a bit of an understatement. Her face had been melted away She looked like a skeleton. She had very little left to cover the bone structure of her face and she had no eyes because they had been burned out. This girl spoke for 5 minutes and then the video turned to a different scene. It was clearly an attempt to scare kids into driving sober – which most kids predictably just rolled their eyes at. The fact is that video was taped years ago and aired years ago. That girl was seen for 5 minutes then forgotten. But she is Still Alive Today. Her life is still impacted by that crash. She is still blind. Her face is still burned beyond repair. That one moment in time is still defining how she has to spend every moment of every day of her life and will continue to spend it until she dies. She has to live and die with somebody else’s mistake.
Risk: You kill yourself or someone else driving home drunk one night. (I’m not sure which would be worse)
Answer to Risk A = NO.
Risk B: You have a crush. You constantly look over your shoulder to see if that person’s around. You freak-out inside and act nervous every time they are. The possibility of another person holding your crush in their arms makes your heart sink. Should you take the risk of asking your crush out?
Reward: A relationship with someone you currently have a crush on. It could be the worst relationship ever or the best relationship ever. Only time can tell once it’s been given the chance.
Risk: An embarrassing moment if you are rejected and your balloon of hope is popped. This will inevitably be followed by either a loathing of your former crush in which you wish he/she would get hit by a drunk driver and/or feelings of inadequacy and the lingering question of “Why doesn’t he/she like me?”
Risk of Not Taking the Risk: You stay single and have continuous pangs of pain over your crush until they eventually date somebody else and your feelings remain and you hurt even more longing for a future in which you don’t care about your crush.
Well you certainly have a lot of things to take into consideration. Everything looks equally complicated. Here’s a way to simplify:
You’re worried that the crush won’t like you or choose to date you. But currently you don’t know if your crush likes-you likes-you and he/she is not dating you. So the only real difference would be closure. An end to the constant wondering. In time, a chance to move on.
Here’s another thought: Why would you want to be with someone who doesn’t want to be with you? A relationship is a 2way street. You shouldn’t just like the person and say that’s good enough – they should like you back. Relationships are about 2 people wanting to be together. If a person doesn’t want to be in a relationship with another person, it’s a miss-matched relationship. You should aspire to be with someone who is a match. It’s no one’s fault if 2 people don’t want to be together or one person doesn’t want to be together. People are who they are and some people are compatible with certain people and some people aren’t. They are just miss-matched. It’s a given. Accept it*.
*Serenity Prayer Equation: If you can’t change it, Accept it – If you can’t accept it, Change it.
Answer to Risk B =YES.
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