This is going to be a short post and a reminder.

Our mind is good at playing tricks on us. We treat things that are scary as though they are dangerous and often disregard danger if it is not scary. We need to override this natural impulse. Granted, there are things that are both scary and dangerous, but that's not the point of this post.

Scary, not Dangerous: Public speaking, cold approach, quitting a job to start a business, skydiving, rock climbing with proper gear. There is not much real danger involved, except marginal danger with skydiving and rock climbing. Though the risk of death lower than many normal activities.

Dangerous, not scary: Not taking action to live a fulfilled life, drugs that seem innocuous, unhealthy foods, slowly becoming obese, settling for bad relationships because they are comfortable.

There are better examples than the ones I listed, but you should be able to get my point. It is our nature to avoid the scary, yet the scary is often not dangerous and it is the scary things that we need to do. On the other hand, there are many things where we do not recognize the danger because they are not scary.

I am trying to take a more nuanced approach to the typical "just face your fears". While this hackneyed phrase is true, it doesn't address danger. It is important to recognize when danger is present, even if it is not scary. Adopting this approach has helped me make better decisions and made scary things feel a little less scary.