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What Risks Are You Choosing? | The Smile Squad #5
One important tenant of investing is to manage your risk.
Balanced portfolio. Dollar cost average. Fixed yield vs. growth. Bonds. Stocks. Precious metals. Cash. Crypto. Commodities. Annuities. Whole life insurance. Real estate...
The choices for how we can invest are endless. Each one carries it's own risk. Some known, some unknown. It's no wonder many people choose to turn portfolio allocation decisions over to qualified professionals.
When it comes to life though, you can't hire a professional to make your life decisions for you. You are in control of what risks you take.
Any time we're faced a major up-level it involves risks. It almost always feels riskier than just continuing to do what we've always done.
The confusion, once again, lies in the unknown.
We're all pretty comfortable with the risks we believe we are currently taking because they are familiar to us. Making a choice to change or grow makes us feel vulnerable and therefore we draw the false conclusion that it's more "risky".
Look back over the course of your life and ask yourself this question:
"Do I regret the risks I've taken or the risks I've avoided?"
The question is a bit rhetorical. Decisions based on fear never lead to growth. Ever.
An example from my own life is when I was a freshmen at Penn State University. I played soccer growing up but transitioned to football in high school. I always had a strong right kicking leg.
I was not a punter in high school but during my freshmen year at Penn State I was playing around with some friends and discovered that with a little technique and focus I could punt the ball 60 yards pretty consistently.
This discovery had me inspired and thinking: "What if I actually had a coach? I could possibly punt for Penn State. I could be on the Penn State Football Team!"
At the time, Robbie Gould was the kicker at Penn State (future likely Hall of Famer). A friend of mine knew him and asked him how I could try out. Robbie told him "he shouldn't bother because we have an amazing punter Jeremy Boone coming in this year".
When my friend delivered the news to me and I lost hope immediately. I avoided the risk of trying out anyway and failing. I regret it immensely until this day.
Now, I'm a tooth guy.
So, how does this apply to teeth?
The health of your gums, tooth structure, smile appearance, TMJ, blood pressure, diabetes, risk of stroke and heart attack, confidence, airway, nutrition, and self-worth are all tied to your dental health.
When people have known issues in any of these categories and choose not to pursue dental solutions to these problems they are choosing to potentially risk the following:
Now, what if someone chooses to treat these issues (whichever ones apply)?
The risks are:
Now, these are not meant to be taken as comprehensive lists of risks when it comes to treatment vs. non-treatment.
My point is this: Do you want your dental health risks to choose you OR do you want to be the one that chooses the risks by proactively addressing your dental health?
Of course, this applies to life as well. We're never able to avoid risk entirely. But we can choose risks that can potentially get us what we want. We might fail.
We do, however, guarantee failure when we don't go for what we want.
Should you be choosing a different set of risks?
Celebrate and honor the courage of our Founding Fathers this weekend and have a wonderful time with friends and family.
In Service,
Dr. Jesse Ritter
