Everyday, in some way, each of us begins each new day by lying to ourselves that nothing “bad” will happen to us today. It’s like it’s part of our human nature. We know that people are involved in accidents every day that end their lives or incapacitate them; that’s just it, we tell ourselves that it will happen to someone else – not us. However, if everyone else is also saying that accidents, injuries, and death will happen to someone else, that “someone else” is you.
For the most part, telling ourselves that any number of bad things is not going to happen to us today is not only helpful but necessary in our modern lives. If a person was to calculate and consider the risks connected with the activities we routinely do in an average day, like showering/bathing, eating, using stairs, or driving or riding in vehicles, we likely would become paralyzed with fear and not lift our heads off our pillows.
According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control, if you drive a car, you have a 1 in 77% chance of dying in an accident during that drive, making it equal with the chance of dying from using a firearm. According to Asktheodds.com, the odds of dying in a car accident, over the span of your entire life, are somewhere in between 1 and 50 and 1 and 100 if the other driver is driving an SUV, the chances of you being killed increases roughly 2 to 6 times. Nerdwallet.com reported that you have a 1 in 1,884 chance of dying in an accident in your own home, like from falling down the stairs.
According to the National Safety Council, you have a 1 in 1,123 chance of dying each time you go for a swim. As a pedestrian, you have a 1 in 521 chance of being struck by a vehicle and dying. Ride a bicycle and you give yourself a 1 in 4,169 chance of being struck and dying or ride a motorcycle and have a 1 in 623 chance of being struck and dying.
Some of you even read this article, looked at the odds and “lied” to yourself that the numbers were still in your favor and it is unlikely that something “bad” would happen to you. Yet, you are also just as likely to “lie” to yourself that the odds could be in your favor and you could win the next huge Powerball jackpot – even though the odds of winning are 1 in 195,249,054.
The truth of the matter is, as author Chuck Palahniuk (“Fight Club”, 1996) once wrote, “on a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.” Stop lying to yourself that nothing “bad” will happen to you. The odds are against you. Get your Will and Estate Plan done today.