Taking the Risk Towards A Great Outcome
May 18, 2009 by Joe Gigantino
“Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it, establish your priorities and go to work.” ~H. L. Hunt
Decisions – we all make them throughout each day; what time we get out of bed, what we wear, where we go, people we interact with, what we eat and so on. In most of our daily decision-making, we don’t think too much about consequences. Many of us just make decisions without thinking through all the potential scenarios. Often we end up making spontaneous decisions that can leave us living with the regrets that go along with poor decision-making consequences.
Recently I read a book by Ben Carson, M.D. which is actually a call to action book: Take the Risk: Learning to Identify, Choose, and Live with Acceptable Risk.” Dr. Carson, who is a director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Maryland, has created a different way to think about risk. He calls it “Best/Worst Analysis (B/WA) formula,” and it’s simply asking yourself these four questions when a decision is on the table:
1. What is the best thing that can happen if I do this?
2. What is the worst thing that can happen if I do this?
3. What is the best thing that can happen if I don’t do this?
4. What is the worst thing that can happen if I don’t do this?
Once you take your decision in question through the four steps, you review each answer and then you’re going to want to make your decision based on the most positive potential outcome. This can apply to any area of your life – relationships, (“Should I commit to this person or not?”) career opportunities, (“Should I bite the bullet and take the new job I’ve been offered?”) or large purchases, (“Is this the right time to buy a new home?”) The list is endless, and no decision is really too trivial to not take the time to run through these four questions – even if you don’t write it on paper and it’s only in your mind.
I started thinking closely on this subject and began to dissect everything that crossed my decision-making path. Of course, I started to analyze the exercise factor and thought about those who always have a reason why they don’t exercise or belong to a gym:
- What’s the best thing that can happen to me if I exercise today? “I’ll feel very good about myself when I complete my workout.”
- What’s the worst thing that can happen to me if I exercise today? “I could fall down and hurt myself.”
- What’s the best thing that can happen if I don’t exercise today? “I won’t be sore tomorrow.”
- What’s the worst thing that can happen if I don’t exercise today? “It will be easier for me not to exercise tomorrow or the next day.”
- What’s the best thing that can happen if I join a health club or gym? “I’ll get in shape and become healthier.”
- What’s the worst thing that can happen if I join a health club or gym? “I’ll pay the money and never go.”
- What’s the best thing that can happen if I don’t join a health club or gym? “I’ll use the money that I would have spent and take my out-of-shape self to happy hour or buy “things” that I won’t remember a month from now.”
- What’s the worst thing that can happen if I don’t join a health club or gym? “I’ll stay the way I am, possibly becoming more out of shape and experience poor health.
The above examples make it pretty easy to see what your best decision would be. OK, so maybe your answers wouldn’t be the same as these, but you get my point. If you take the time to assess your decisions and then analyze what the potential outcome could be, it helps you put things into perspective and make the best overall decision. Try it with any area of your life. It has helped me see things differently especially in my business decisions.
So whether you are contemplating a change in a career, relationship or even a health and wellness decision, ask yourself Dr. Carson’s four questions. You might just risk a great outcome!
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Nice. That is so awesome that you applied those questions to health and fitness. You are so smart that way. Thanks, Joe!
(Loved the quote at the beginning, so I copied it and tweeted it with the blog url!)
I am copying those questions too. I am going to use them for my next few decisions! Thanks again!
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