Does the idea of taking a risk make you panic, or does it send a tingle down your spine?
Everyone has a different level of comfort when it comes to taking risks with preferences influenced by past experience, environment, and potential for reward.
Like many of you, I look back on my youth in much disbelief and dismay at some of the decisions I made, especially now that I am employed as a safety and risk management consultant.
In my youth I was familiar with the term “Don’t Poke the Bear” but obviously I didn’t fully understand its meaning until one day in 1982.
Still living with my parents as a post-high school teenager at a hobby farm in Lexington, I found myself running late and in a hurry to a double date with a buddy on a curvy country road behind a state trooper; who happened to be driving about 5 miles per houjr below the posted 55 mile speed limit.
Becoming increasingly frustrated with the state trooper’s safe driving habits, Idecided to take on a bet from my buddy, to pass him at the next straight-away on this two-lane highway. Being confident that I was 100 percent in the right and feeling about 10 feet tall and bullet-proof, I purposely then maintained the posted speed limit after passing him.
It didn’t take long for the state trooper to light me up when we both came to a four way stop, when he pleasantly discovered that I had a brake-light out.
As it turned out poking “Smoky the Bear” wasn’t a very pleasant experience, as I sat in the passenger side of his car being taught a lesson in patience. He purposely took his time writing up as many infractions as he could possibly find. But more importantly, he personally lectured me for a good 20 minutes about the importance of safe driving habits and he proceeded to tell me about all the fatalities he had responded to over the years. Today I can truly appreciate this.
Risk taking is natural and can be either beneficial or harmful. Some risk taking is unintentional, but a considerable amount stems from proactive or reactive motivation. In our youth many of us took risks because we lacked knowledge while feeling completely invincible. Thankfully risk taking diminishes with age.
It’s a fact as well that males are more likely that females to take risk.
In the safety profession the pressing question is — what motivates people to override their natural-born protective mechanisms when they choose to take risks and what are ways to motivates people not to engage in those risky behaviors?
According to an online article in Psychology Today, some childhood developmental theorists argue that for the majority of young people, risk taking is a display of natural exploration and movement toward greater autonomy; others see it as a reactive response when exploration and efforts toward greater independence are curtailed.
Risk taking is calculated with respect to the probabilities assigned to expected outcomes multiplied by the probable value to be gained. Risk takers have been grouped into three categories: those who try to avoid risks, those who weigh outcomes to reduce risks, and those who seek out the thrill of the risks. The last group often is seen as made up of “sensation seekers” (e.g., seekers of thrills, adventures, dangerous experiences or encounters).
This could possibly explain my high school friend Gary Burrow’s need for speed back in high school. Gary was a couple of years older than me and drove a souped-up 1972 Cutlass with a Rocket 350HP engine, with his very own Nitrous Oxide tank in the trunk which added an additional 50 HP when he needed it. That Cat was responsible for introducing me to the fear of speed on more than a couple of occasions on a Friday night after a high school football game. Traveling at 120 MPH+ in the late 70’s without a seatbelt can sure have a post-traumatic effect on a guy in my chosen career.
Despite the fact that Gary is now much older and wiser and drives a simple Ford F150 4WD, I probably still wouldn’t ride with him, as I have to figure he is living on his 8th life.
Contrary to what a riskologist may think, not all risk-taking is unhealthy or damaging. In fact, many risks are not only good, but stimulate healthy neurological development and growth during the critical adolescent period.
Risk-taking and rule-breaking are related to developmental changes in the brain that serve to help teens become healthy, analytical adults, but only if they survive.
Therefore, a certain amount of positive risk-taking is necessary for adolescents to fulfill their universal need for independence, developing a separate identity, and testing authority.
Since most teenagers are hard-wired to take risks, it’s best for parents to help find positive and healthy risk-taking ventures such as playing team sports, volunteer activities, working part-time, getting involved in theatre, joining a high school club or marching band and making new friends. What makes these activities risky is that they all encompass the possibility of failure.
Learning how to help others, win and lose, work with others, are all important social milestones that every teen must conquer. Positive risk-taking can not only serve as a means to boost self- confidence, but to also help prevent negative risk-taking behavior such as experimenting with sex, drugs and alcohol.
For example, a teenage girl who plays sports is less likely to have sex early and less than half more likely to get pregnant, as girls who do not participate in sports. These positive effects of teens’ healthy risk-taking for girls include higher self-esteem, confidence, being more content with their body image or weight and being more likely to attend college.
Taking unhealthy risks in still natural and is a part of growing up, but the key is survivability. Now raising my third high schooler I can safely say that most teens do take unhealthy as well as healthy risks, and as a parent I have learned to not remain silent.
We all have a history of experiences — ours, our siblings’ and/or our friends’ — to draw upon. Letting our teens know about some of our own mistakes will help build trust and unity in your relationship and will influence them to make better decisions.
It’s important to understand that the past is your lesson, the present is your gift and your future should be your motivation.
But your memories, a few grey hairs and scars is the mother of all wisdom.
Be Safe My Friends.
Keven Moore works in risk management services. He has a bachelor’s degree from University of Kentucky, a master’s from Eastern Kentucky University and 25-plus years of experience in the safety and insurance profession. He lives in Lexington with his family and works out of both the Lexington and Northern Kentucky offices. Keven can be reached at kmoore@roeding.com.