40. The Better Choice

It can be terrifying to choose the unknown. Between an already-tested option and an untried one, more often than not, we want to go with the safe bet.

But what if the safe bet is not actually safe at all — what if it is really the more dangerous option for our current dilemma? With only a limited awareness of the situation, it is difficult not to be deceived. We easily become confused by our existing views and biases. After all, the safe bet was the right choice in the past, and so we believe it must still be good now. We are not able to see the true risk of our options.

If someone tells us that the formerly safe bet is now a bad choice, we will not want to hear it. We ignore such warnings because listening would mean we would have to consider the possibility that we are in more danger than we think. We want to believe everything will work out fine, so we blind ourselves to the need to change course.

We need to take a step back. We need to allow for some distance between ourselves and our view of the world. This is incredibly challenging because we are deeply attached to our existing perspective and beliefs. Our attachment produces an overwhelming anxiety about any kind of change, and we are strongly inclined to hold on to our existing views.

To see more clearly, we need to look at our situation from as many different viewpoints as possible. We need to gather information, and carefully examine everything, both the good and the bad. This kind of dispassionate analysis is never easy, but is necessary in order to see the reality of our situation.

Set free from our attachment, we will be able to see that choosing the unknown is not always the inferior option. In some cases, it might not only be the better choice but also the only way to reach what we most desperately need.