Invincible: necessary or "foolish" pride

I am going to come clean about my deep held belief that I am invincible.  I know in my logical mind that I am actually quite fragile and vulnerable to an endless array of things that can go awry in my internal and external world.  And yet... I carry on as if  "this won't happen to me".  Why is that?

I understand why children have this belief...they truly don't KNOW that they are fragile.

I am a physical therapist and do home visits.  Most of my day is full of educating the elderly on fall prevention.  I cannot tell you the number of times I have encouraged the use of lifelines, walkers, and 24 hour supervision for those with precarious balance.  I have noticed a common underlying belief of even very learned and wise seniors who decline my advice because "This won't happen to me."  This denial of logic always astounds me...and even more so because I am also a believer of this totally irrational belief of invincibility.

There are probably several underlying causes, but because it is so universal I am inclined to believe it is a survival mechanism.  Perhaps "denial" of truly knowing our fragility is necessary to get up in the morning.  I mean if we were fully aware of all that could go wrong...we might be afraid to literally take a breath because of all the dangerous microbes!  For some, this is the reality they think about and respond to with constant anxiety.  However, it may be possible their reality is closer to the truth than the "invincible" believers.

So on my job, I have the challenge of breaking through the "invincible" barrier for the purpose of preventing falls which actually saves lives.  I have to be careful because I don't want to encourage a patient to become afraid of falling, because this fear will actually contribute to more falls!  What a pickle.

It is VERY tempting to not address the comfort of the "I am invincible" belief.  Nobody likes to leave their comfort zone.  However, it can become a dangerous obstacle and borders on the line of "foolish" pride.  In the case of my patients...pride may actually cause a fall...which is actually one of the top causes of death in seniors.

Proverbs 16:18  "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall" (NIV) 
I think there may be a literal translation here.