This hit home. I'm risk-averse enough myself, but talking to my family about any risk at all is an exercise in self-defeatism.

A conversation with my mother:

"I think I might like to run the Boston Marathon in a few years. But I've got to run a qualifying marathon first, like New York."

"New York? How are you going to do that?"

"Well, I'll drive to New York, and then I'll run the marathon."

"But it's New York. Where are you going to park?"