There are few certainties in life.
When it comes to pursuing the things we care about, risk is an inherent part of the equation.
No matter how hard we work to stack the deck in our favour, approach the task at hand as perfectly as possible, or act with total focus on our goal, there’s a chance we won’t get what we want.
We can reduce this chance, sure.
We can mitigate a lot of the common pitfalls people like us might fall into.
And if we’re lucky, we might even be able to leverage the insight of others as a shortcut to success.
But none of these strategies guarantee we’ll avoid failure.
For all but the least compelling objectives already with our grasp, volatility is always lurking.
It wears many faces and takes many forms. But however it appears, its core impact is the same:
Wherever it’s present, we risk not getting what we want.
Rather than tying ourselves in knots trying to avoid this reality entirely, we’re better off just accepting it as a condition of playing the game.
The more afraid we are of something, the more weight we give it in our imagination. When it’s undefined, it grows and grows in size until its shadow looms large over us.
It’s only by turning around and facing that fear with our eyes wide open that we see it for what it truly is.
Most of the time, it’s far less than we imagined – than we feared while we fled.
Another important shift we can make:
The longer our time horizon, the less volatility matters.
If we stake our life savings on the outcome of a single coin toss, our chances are 50/50 – success and failure are equally likely.
But what if we could toss that coin 100 times, and only had to call it correctly once? Or even 20 times?
By giving ourselves more chances to succeed, we increase our chances of success.
Similarly: by zooming out and examining our output over a longer period of time, we detach ourselves from worrying about the minute and can instead focus on achieving success in the long-term.
The shorter our timeframe, the more pain volatility can cause us.
The longer our timeframe, the less it matters.
When it comes to the things we care about, we’re seldom in it for the short haul.
Rather than letting out satisfaction live and die by what we can do today, a broader view lets us appreciate the journey for what it is:
A process of continuous refinement as we get closer and closer to our goal.
Seen in this light, volatility transforms from an annoying obstacle to something we simply acknowledge and contend with. Currents and waves that are a part of voyage, but that could serve us just as easily as they hinder us…
With the right approach.