A Healthy Degree of Paranoia is Actually Good

Without going fully into la-la land, sometimes a reasonable degree of paranoia can actually help you achieve great success in your life.

It’s mine I tell you — MINE

Just remember: everything and everyone wants you to fail, always.

At least — that’s what ultra paranoid people want you to think. It’s probably not the best outlook, because it’s going to prevent you taking any appropriate risks and generally stifle your productivity as you get bogged down in worry and panic.

Instead, what if you approached things with a healthy dose of paranoia — just enough to keep you looking out for appropriate and likely threats to your goals, but not so much that you become incapable of rational thought?

We’re going to take a look at how to distinguish the two types of paranoia, and what makes the good type worth considering.

Importantly: I’m not talking about clinical paranoia here — I’m using the word in its common sense.

What does Unhealthy Paranoia Look Like?

Paranoia is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality (from Wiki)

I think that’s a useful working definition to be getting on with.

To really understand it though, let’s consider the elements for a moment (yep — I’m a lawyer, that’s just how I do things!):

• it’s a thought process;
• it (the thought process) influenced by anxiety or fear;
• to the point of irrationality.

Of course the definition puts things in the wrong order. Because in reality it STARTS with the anxiety or fear.

That anxiety or fear influences your thinking. Your ideas, your concepts, your projects, your goals — they all become influenced by the anxiety and fear.

But that influence doesn’t stop at just making your pause and think, then take calculated risks. Instead, it poisons the brain so that you become irrationally afraid of things.

You need groceries, but don’t want to get in the car in case you have an accident.

You could walk to the store, but you might get mugged.

You could order online and have your groceries delivered, but they might steal your credit card details.

And so you don’t act. Because in acting you expose yourself to risks. And your fears tell you that those risks are too great for the rewards of (in this case) eating.

What about Reverse Paranoia? Pickin’ Up Good Vibrations

Jack Canfield in “The Fundamentals of Success” suggests that becoming an inverse paranoid is the way to go.

Here’s the theory — instead of thinking the world is out to get you, assume that everything and everyone want you to succeed and have your best interests at heart.

Canfield says:

there is growing research that the vibrations of positive expectation that successful people give off actually attract to them the very experiences they believe they are going to get

Ignoring the “vibrations” bit, I can see how this is an attractive theory.

Not only does it fit nicely into my general outlook of overwhelming positivity, but it also sounds like it would make life a bunch more fun than the opposite does.

It’s essentially the Monty Python approach to living:

The difficulty is this: there’s also research suggesting that a healthy dose of paranoia is actually a predictable element in the success of businesses who consistently outperform.

That said, as Canfield suggests, there is certainly value in looking for lessons and opportunities arising out of bad events. But that’s not the same thing as inverse paranoia.

Remember our definition: paranoia involves a fear that affects our thinking which results in irrational thought. The paranoia takes place prior to the event, rather than in response to the event.

Should we react to bad events in a way that’s productive rather than destructive? Absolutely.

But that’s not what we’re talking about here.

A Cunning Blend — Productive and Prudent Paranoia

Planning appropriately for risks without being simultaneously paralysed and inactive is the ideal balancing act to try and reach.

It necessarily involves keeping an eye on your market. But in doing so you need to be constantly asking these questions:

1. What are the risks?
2. What kind of impact do they have on your business or project?
3. What is the likelihood of the risk eventuating?
4. How much of that likelihood can you readily control?
5. How bad would it be if it did?

Taking our example above, it’s certainly possible that you’d have a car accident on the way to get your food. However, with prudent driving you can mitigate many of the risks. That reduces the likelihood of an accident happening. It can also reduce the severity of an accident if it did happen. The result is that you’re probably fine to go and get some groceries. You might still be in an accident and it might be bad, but the odds are in your favour.

The same approach can be applied to everything you do in life.

Should you propose to your girlfriend/boyfriend?

Should you start a business “on the side”?

Should you quit your job or take a new position?

Running your decisions constantly through a rational risk assessment can dramatically improve your likelihood of success.

Risks shouldn’t stop you from acting. Accept that things might not work the way you wanted. Be mindful of the risks and control what you can, but accept what you can’t.

Then act.

Over to you — when has fear kept you from acting? How did you feel? What would you do given another chance?

Let me know in the comments!

Originally published at Chris Hargreaves.