Our biology AND psychology are predisposed to survival. It is nothing short of a miracle when we slip on the stairs and catch ourselves without thinking. Our self-preservation or survival instincts work; we want them to, and we can’t overstate the benefits of survival. But there is something subtle to be learned in the not slipping. Our instincts kick in before we mentally realize we’re in danger.

Why, then, do they kick in when we’re not in a life-or-death situation? Why is above my pay grade but my experience seems to suggest a single word: fear.

My experience with fear is that all fears are rooted in one of two survival stories. The first story is that we are going to lose something we think we already have. The second, we’re not going to get something we think we want.

They are two variations of our obsession with ourselves and what we can get.

There is only one problem with surviving a non-life-or-death moment, we’re stuck with what we get. Sometimes that works out. Sometimes it doesn’t.