The Huge Risk You Don't Know About (And How to Avoid It)

The greatest risk is no risk at all.

You're risking everything.

People in their modern comforts become avoidant of discomfort. They think all discomfort is bad.

Risk is uncomfortable, it's discomfort. The trap of modern life is to become comfort seeking and risk-avoidant.

Avoiding all risk means avoiding all upside.

Nothing good comes from comfort and complacency.

Try it out for yourself:

Avoid any social rejection as a child and teenager, don't talk to anyone new since they might not like you.

Let your parents decide what university program you're going to take.

Binge-eat junk food whenever possible, it feels good.

Don't switch programs because that's uncomfortable, finish the degree.

Find a job in the field you studied.

You're getting old, marry the girl who likes you even though she's a 4/10 by your standards.

Work at that company for the rest of your career, climb the corporate ladder.

Your wife is divorcing you and taking the kids.

You got diabetes because of your eating habits.

Live alone and suffer from terrible health for the last years of your life.

Die alone in a retirement home.

This is the life of the average. The average American is overweight, in debt, and divorced.

If you want results that aren't average, you must live a life that isn't average.

This is the risk looming over everyone's head, average. The desire for social conformity pulls everyone towards this outcome. The pull to do as they do, to act as they act. However, that means you'll also get what they get.

Life is inherently risky; it's going to kill you.

If you want exceptional results you need to be the exception, not normal. Participate in uncommon activities, hold uncommon beliefs, and resist society trying to fit you into its mold.

Take the risk or lose the chance.

Revaluate your connotation of risk and discomfort.

Discomfort is inevitable in life. You either deliberately inflict it or life does it for you.

You deliberately inflict the discomfort of lifting weights and eating clean, or life inflicts the discomfort of bad health.

Choose to inflict the discomfort of changing your situation, or life inflicts the discomfort of staying complacent.

Every action has an associated pain and pleasure.

Instant gratification gives pleasure immediately and delayed pain. For example, doom-scrolling social media, drugs, and binge-eating junk food.

Delayed gratification gives pain immediately and delayed pleasure. For example, lifting weights, eating clean, and learning.

For whatever reason the delayed pain or pleasure is almost always greater than the initial.

The pull to comfort and risk avoidance leads to instant gratification. You deliberately get pleasure, but life inflicts discomfort.

If you actively inflict pain and discomfort in your life through delayed gratification you'll have less net pain. Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life.

Delayed gratification is short-term pain seeking, but long-term pain avoidant. The pull of instant gratification and risk avoidance leads to a more painful life.

People lament risk but fall victim to the biggest risk of all: not living in the first place

Uncertainty

Uncertainty is misunderstood. People have goals and desire change, but they also desire certainty.

By nature of learning and growing you are expanding your knowledge into the unknown. If it's known you wouldn't need to learn it.

Alex Hormozi talks about how uncertainty is the feeling of entrepreneurship. In your own life know uncertainty can signal that you're along the right track.

In the face of uncertainty, focus on the variables within your control. Try to be directionally correct rather than absolutely correct, you are stepping into the unknown after all.

Uncertainty is what makes life fun. Imagine you knew every step of your life, who you'd meet, your friends, who you'd marry, how much money you'd make, etc... If the rest of your life's completely planned out and scheduled it'd be emotionless, there was no risk.

You'd take everything for granted. Are you grateful every second of the day for your arms and legs, house, even air? Probably not, it's just your baseline expectation. That's how you'd feel about everything you'll achieve if you knew it was certain.

Bathe in the uncertainty of life, you're alive. You could die tomorrow.

When you embrace uncertainty it takes a weight off your shoulders, and you realize it was self-imposed.

How to use this

We've mostly talked in terms of beliefs and philosophy up to this point. Let's go over some actionable advice, and apply the theory.

Logically you know delayed gratification is better for you, and ultimately leads to less pain. Here are some delayed gratification habits you can adopt:

• Lifting Weights

  • Like all new habits, you should gradually onboard lifting into your lifestyle. You can start small with 30 minutes 3–4 days per week. What's impressive about somebody who's fit isn't the intensity of their workouts, it's the consistency. Don't worry about doing the perfect exercises or workout, just do something. You'll iterate as you go, and as time passes you'll get it right.

• Reading

  • The knowledge that every human who's ever lived before modern times is chiefly in books. Learning will give you better perspective, improve your judgement, and can help to acquire skills. Read what you're genuinely interested in. Forget what you think you “should” read, or what looks good to others. As you read it will begin to color the tapestry of your psyche. You'll become wiser, a better thinker, and more articulate.

• Healthy Eating

  • If your diet is clean then your mind and body are as well. You'll be performing at your best in every area. It benefits your work, relationships, and fitness. Don't jump onto some fad diet, you're going to fail. Eat whole foods, and avoid processed ones. Simple as that. Eat one ingredient foods.

• Good Sleep

  • Similar to a clean diet this will massively benefit every area of your life. Have a consistent sleep and wake time, get 8h of sleep. It's a simple process but hard to implement.

Avoid instant gratification such as short-form social media content (TikTok, Reels, Shorts, etc...), junk food, and drugs.

Make a vision for how you want your life to be. Write out the daily actions that if you took for 10 years that vision would be inevitable. Focus on being directionally correct rather than absolutely correct. You'll iterate the vision as you gain more knowledge about yourself and the world.