Re-gaining ownership over our own risk decisions

Under lockdown the government message was clear - stay safe, stay home and save lives.

Going out was prohibited unless absolutely essential and there were clear guidelines about what we could and couldn’t do. We didn’t need to exercise much judgement. It was clear if constraining.  Now the government is starting to cede control back to us as members of the public to make our own risk based decisions. Although we could and should feel positive about this and eager to regain control, many of us (me included) may feel apprehensive about taking back this responsibility.

Pre-COVID we made health related risk-based decisions every day without being conscious of most of them. Every day I would decide whether to cross the road at the traffic lights or take my chances elsewhere. I would decide whether or not to send my daughter to school when she said she was not feeling well. Many of these decisions became habits (good and bad) which we would do unthinkingly - e.g. washing our hands after going to the loo; brushing our teeth twice a day. Unconsciously the risks of not doing these things outweighed the time it took for follow these daily habits. 

All of a sudden it feels unfamiliar to be making health related decisions that would have been easy in a pre-COVID world. Will I want to travel on public transport and at what times of the day? In a pre-COVID world, I would have done this without thought.  Will I want to send my daughter back to school even if her school is indicating that it is “safe” to do so? Will I want to go shopping for non-essential items even though social distancing measures have been implemented? Will I be willing to go to the hairdresser provided they wear PPE have rigorous hygiene regimes? On this latter risk based decision my answer is a resounding YES although I am conscious that my vanity may be out-weighing logic!

I suspect that, in time,  we will all regain confidence and the ability to make sensible risk based decisions in a COVID world without undue angst. In due course, these decisions will become such a normal part of everyday life that we will be making them unconsciously.

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I am an Executive Coach/Mentor and a Gallup certified strengths-based professional.

If you want to learn more about 1x1 coaching with me, please drop me an e-mail to ad@annemariedurbin.com