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By avoiding danger, we avoid opportunity

Writer's picture: Mark FranklinMark Franklin

Our brains are the most powerful and phenomenal supercomputers that have ever existed. And yet their subroutines and automations are built on some very simple rules :

  • Whatever you tell it to do, it will do*

  • Whatever you do often, it will set as your default

  • Whatever you choose to believe, it will manifest


* Incidentally, your brain struggles if you only tell it what not to do. It needs a positive instruction to act. I.e. if you tell it to think of fluffy kittens (but don't tell it what to think about instead), then it's fluffy kittens everywhere!


The prime directive of your super computer is simple - to keep you safe from danger. Thousands of years ago, its programming was built on the following lines of code:


• 10 - Survive

• 20 - Danger = death and death = failure to survive

• 30 - Avoid danger

• 40 - Goto 10


Avoiding danger (E.g., beasts with sharp pointy teeth) meant avoiding failure. Nowadays the outcomes to facing up to danger are less terminal. Danger is now measured on a completely differently scale. And yet our brains still default to avoiding danger (and protecting us from failure) wherever possible.


By avoiding danger, we avoid opportunity

If we choose not to do something dangerous, we are choosing to remain in our Comfort Zone (surrounded by what we already know). This means that we miss out on anything beyond those current experiences. Put simply; by avoiding danger, we avoid opportunity.

Comfort Zone diagram. Concentric circles where opportunity increases the further you move away from the centre. By avoiding danger, we avoid opportunity - i.e. by staying in the centre of the diagram, you will not have the opportunity to stretch and grow.

Embracing danger (embracing failure) means reaching out for an opportunity or experience that sits just beyond where we find ourselves in the moment.


Opportunity exists beyond where you are right now

As such, you cannot pursue opportunity without risking danger.

The killer question though (now that the sharp pointy teeth are all but extinct) is "What does danger actually look like for you?" What is the worst that can happen?


Conversely (and leaning more into opportunity side of the Failure vs Opportunity Scales) - what is the BEST that can happen?



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