I stole the title of this blog post from a 1999 album by the post-hardcore band Underoath. Anyway.

Humans are wired to seek safety. It’s the bottom rung on Maslow’s ladder, it’s the key ingredient in successful relationships, it’s a selling point for political leaders, it’s what we crave first and foremost.

In times like these-times of mistrust, unrest, chaos, and sickness, we’re moved to chase safety even more. It’s why Gartner has identified the trend of “Spiritual Cocooning” as the result of shifting values moving towards comfort, safety, and serenity. More of us are spending more time at home, shrinking our social bubbles, and placing our trust even more selectively.

But in reality, safety is an illusion. Helen Keller said “Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.”

This is the nature of reality and humanity. We’re never actually in a place of “safety.” The things we depend on to keep us safe are mostly illusions. Marriage, homes, salaried jobs, police, none of them are as dependable as we think they are.

Marriage — 50% of them fail.
Homes — Remember 2008?
Jobs — It’s called “At-Will” employment.
Police — Yeah.

So I submit that our best course of action is to embrace the chaos. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. This is why quotes like “life begins at the end of your comfort zone” exist. They’re cheesy but they’re true.

Because clinging to safety keeps life boring, and usually gets us the opposite result.

Cling too much to a marriage and you’ll strip it of the joy and the mystery essential for passion.
Seth Godin asserts that “playing it safe” at work is the riskiest thing you can do.
If you invest your 401k too conservatively you’ll never end up with enough to retire on.

The bottom line is this. We’ll never be as safe or as comfortable as we want to be.

Let’s embrace that, and keep going.

#outchea