We are always buying insurance policies. No. Not those related to your life and car. Just those simple insurance policies that will protect our ego just in case something we say doesn’t turn out the way we said it would.
Rather than talking in abstract terms, here are some examples:
Small print: You are buying an “Irresponsibility insurance.” Nobody can now blame you for not reaching your destination. If you don’t have one, how can you reach there? In fact, wherever you go, you can say that it was circumstantial and it was not where you wanted to go.
Small print: You are buying “No Accountability insurance.” In case it works you can take the credit. If it does not, you can always quote this and keep your head high.
You say: I don’t know what I want in my new job
Small print: You are buying the “No satisfaction ever insurance.” This will give you full coverage to see that whatever your job turns out to be, that is NOT what you wanted.
You say: I don’t have a plan for this one
Small print: You are buying “OK to fail insurance.” If you fail, you can say that its not because of you. If the plan was right, you would have come out in flying colors.
You say: I am just doing this for fun
Small print: Most often, you are buying “Save my ego” insurance. You are free to not put any serious effort on this and nobody will come and question you. There might also be another angle to this. If you succeed big in this effort, you can say that you succeeded albeit doing this just for fun almost posing a question – “Could you imagine where I would have been if I had taken this seriously?”
You say: I am not the only one responsible for this
Small print: You are buying “Zero accountability” insurance. If things don’t get done, you can always say that you thought someone else would be doing it.
Of course, you can come up with your own examples from your life or lives of those people that are close to you. Insurance policies are required. However, insurance policies should not cripple you. Not taking any risk may be the biggest risk that you are taking.