LOSS AND FALL

I woke up happy! Who wouldn’t? Because it’s Friday. Pass this day, and comes the weekend. Smooth morning routines. Delightful breakfast. Reached the bus stop early. The bus comes in time. Cool and peaceful day. TOP NOTCH weekend. Everything goes fine. Until…..

Monday morning. Unlike the other weekdays, Procrastination becomes the ‘motto’ of most Mondays. QUICK bath….. HUSTLE with the suit….. SKIP the breakfast….. and RUSH to the bus stop….. and then………………………….. the bus arrives LATE. My frustrated mind starts cursing the innocent bus and its driver, and then the entire day is spoiled.

“The bus never arrives on time whenever needed, but roams here often when not needed.”

Correct me if I’m wrong. These are the exact words I, you and all of us use to curse the bus on every rush hour of our lives.

Though it’s a sunny Friday, we never thank the bus for arriving early and relieving us from the Sun. But one fine Monday, it comes late and “ARE YOU KIDDING?”, the bus gets our intense wrath. There could have been multiple such Fridays in a month the bus came early and we don’t remember those days. Surprisingly, we remember that one lone Monday in a couple of months and point out the same incident on multiple occasions.

As always, WHY? Why we remember the loss on Mondays and forget the gain on Fridays? It’s the same reason why you don’t get rid of the rusty bicycle that you never intend to use again, saying its lucky/memory/sentiment/my first ever/ etc., Pause for a minute and look around….. the cardboard box of your TV, the thermocol that came with the refrigerator, Shoe boxes, worn out toothbrush, the broken cell phone, useless mobile chargers and earphones, rusty key chains and the gifted wrist watches, old school notebooks, broken spares and wires of your home appliances, childhood dresses, etc., etc.,

Another interesting thing I noticed when writing about Karma is, we hear more of “He suffers because of his Karma” rather than “He is happy because of his karma”. It seems like we remember karma only if there is a possibility of a loss in the event.

All these observations give us an idea that “We typically fear loss twice as much as we relish success” (said by Daniel Kahneman). This phenomenon is called Loss aversion.

In my previous post WILL I REAP WHAT I SOW? #2, I wrote about the crucial role fear and pain plays in our survival. Pain is felt both emotionally and physically. Any kind of the above said losses would trigger the emotional pain. The fear of this emotional pain boosts us to try our utmost to prevent the loss which causes it.

This makes us feel more inclined towards losses than gains. Though the benefits of losing certain things are more than keeping them, we prefer the latter. This is how the loss aversion meddle with our decisions. These decisions may have little effect on our day to day life, but in due course of time it would make a big difference.

Loss aversion can be seen in day to day spending of your hard earned money. It is seen in the stock market where people buy more and sell less. Marketing people make use of this loss aversion to boost up the sales. When they say these magic words,

“HURRY UP! LIMITED TIME OFFER! LIMITED STOCK!”,

we are urged to buy these goods in fear of losing them.

Becoming aware of loss aversion makes our life a lot simpler and easier. It would give a new outlook in risk taking. Rather than holding back in fear of loss, by rationally thinking the outcome, we would be willing to give up what we have to gain more in return.

Also, our inherent attention to loss can be productively applied to achieve our goals. A constant reminder of ‘What we would lose if we don’t achieve our goal’ would motivate us a lot more than the reminder of ‘What we would gain from the same‘.

Nature lets us fall for the loss. But it also lets us to use that fall to gain! Be wise and be productive! It is true that,

“WE HATE LOSING MORE THAN WE LOVE WINNING”

Vijay Ramnath – V Space

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