If you speed up to try and get past a traffic light that's turning red, there's a decent chance you'll have a fatal accident.
Many people you know will have tried it at some point, with zero repercussions. No lesson learned, no behaviour change, just a near miss.
It's easy to take near misses for granted because you don't get to test all the possible outcomes. When something almost goes terribly wrong but doesn't, we often take it as a sign that the risk isn't that bad. Or even that we're good enough to handle it.
You run a red light and a version of you in 3 parallel universes gets smushed. But in this universe, you're just fine. So you keep doing it.
You have another bad argument with your wife - 6 alternate versions of you are signing divorce papers. But in this universe, she forgives you. So you keep doing it.
You're already living in the best-case scenario, or something close to it.
So how do we get better at noticing near-misses? Ask this question: of various areas of your life:
If my project were to completely fall apart tomorrow, what would be the most likely cause?
If I get fired tomorrow what would be the most likely reason?
If my boyfriend breaks up with me next week, what might have been the final straw?
Identify near misses in advance, make plans to fix or avoid them, and you'll always be a step ahead of calamity.
