Risk Management

 

Something I’ve learned as a novice golfer is managing what’s a good miss versus a bad miss. Because I’m terrible, my shot dispersion is very large, meaning that if I’m aiming straight I can still hit it way left or way right. Given that I don’t know where my ball is going to go, I have to pick an aim point that minimizes damage in the likely event that I mishit the ball. So, for example, if there’s water on the left, I’d rather miss right than run the risk of a penalty; or, if I’m chipping onto the green, I’d rather make sure I get it on the green even if I leave myself a long putt, than to under-hit it and not make it to the green. 

This has proven to be a useful perspective for life, which like golf is all about “shot dispersion” (meaning, a wide range of possible outcomes) and risk management. For example, there are a lot of variables that go into getting myself, my family members, and our belongings through the airport, so it makes sense to go too early (where the risk is having to wait in the terminal) than to go too late (where the risk is missing the flight). Or, as I get older I find my short-term memory getting a little shaky, so if I’ve just left the Y and I’m second-guessing whether I remembered to put my swimsuit in my bag, I’ll bear the small cost of stopping and checking over the rarer but dearer cost of not stopping and losing the swimsuit. 

But these are trivial examples, albeit useful little things that add up to a less anxious life. I think the golf lesson also applies to the big things too. When faced with an opportunity to stand up for justice, it can be easy to not want to bear the cost of inconvenience or embarrassment or even ridicule. But when compared against the greater cost of lacking integrity and courage and conviction, the choice becomes clearer. Is it a bigger miss to lose your evenings and weekends for 2 years to go back and get that degree, or is it a bigger miss to not get that degree and wonder what if? When the game of life gives you a shot, know where your “water” is and where your ”safer miss” is, and swing away.