What is the worst that could happen?

I’m moving jobs, again, and putting the financial well being of our household at risk. It may be the case that I’m getting a (significant) pay rise but I’m trading that for job security. I’m off to join the world of contracting.

It suits my itinerant nature, I can be like The Littlest Hobo or The Hulk moving from town to town offering my help and wisdom before moving on. Maybe tomorrow I’ll settle down but for today I’ll take the rewards. What’s the worst that could happen?

Other than having no job?

Is that the worst thing that could happen? Of course not, as a result of being unemployed I could lose the house or maybe rack up unimaginable debt we are unable to pay off. Still we are not at the bottom of the despair.

While I have no job we are expecting child number 2, so Mrs G will be on maternity. What if I am stuck on non voluntary paternal leave (one of the terrible aspects of living in the hell hole of a socialist dystopia called ‘anywhere but America and Papua New Guinea’ ) and we can only rely on a lower income that our malevolent Tory overlords may withdraw because Mrs G is not from these parts?

What if Mrs G got sent home? What if she was never allowed back home? What if she lost her job in teaching?

What if something happened to me? To Mrs G? To our children? What if?

There are so many bad things that can happen during the day. Falling downstairs, being in a car crash, being in a train crash, being in the ‘wrong place’ at the ‘wrong time’. The litany of disasters that can befall you on a daily basis are immense. So why worry?

All worrying about the worst thing to happen paralyses you and prevents you from seeing the best things to happen. Worrying a child may fall of a bike stops you from seeing the smile on their face when the stabilisers come off.

The best course of action is to mitigate the danger as best you can, truly manage the risk. With this new job we are going to be ants not grasshoppers and save the extra money in case times become lean. Even so we can treat ourselves now and then within our limits.

Yes the worst can happen, but ask yourself not how bad it can be but how likely it is. We all could win the lottery (if we enter) but we don’t live life like we have already hit the jackpot, so why exist in fear of the bad?