According to the latest statistics, I fall into the minority. Male, over fifty and NOT having taken the Prostate cancer test. My family doctor looks at me with distain every time I meet her on the street – since I almost never visit her in her clinic. Unlike my wife Shirley (a blessing to the medical profession), who is the exact opposite.

…But with all the recent evidence that the prostate cancer test results in more problems for men than what it is supposed to prevent, maybe I should stick to my strategy of non-prevention.

It seems like we spend lots of effort and time ‘preventing’ things from happening – rather letting them happen. Our authorities won’t let anything happen without the performance of a risk assessment. Entire industries have flourished around the prevention game. There is fall prevention, cancer prevention, accident prevention, cruelty prevention, theft prevention, virus prevention… and the list goes on.

If I was to do a risk assessment on my riding, it would actually prevent me from ever getting on my bike. To save my skin, I would have to eliminate the risk of being hit by a car (or worst by a pedestrian) every time I ride on the road. The dangerous sport of cycle racing would contain too many risks. I would have to take preventative measures against saddle induced infertility – although at my age, it is no longer a concern…

A safety catch is put on a gun to prevent it firing a shot – but in the heat of a battle, all safety catches are off. Prevention becomes a hindrance to the game of war. Only action matters.

In life, you have two choices.

• Go into meticulous planning for the desired outcome. Put in preventative measures to eliminate the undesirable. Insure against the worst. Assess all the alternatives. Micro-manage the processes. Create ‘think tanks’. Organise peer reviews. Do testing and enact rules and regulations. Or…
• Get stuck into it – and whatever happens will happen.

In the end, both choices present opportunities to play different games. All games are worth playing and no game is better than another – only different.

The main thing is that you don’t have to confine yourself to a game that is not fun to play

Just change your game.