The line between brave and reckless is whether you thought about who else might get hurt.

Both look the same from outside: somebody doing the frightening thing while others hesitate. The difference is in what happened beforehand. Brave has counted the cost, including the cost to people who did not choose it, and gone anyway. Reckless has counted nothing, which is why it so often spends other people’s safety to buy its own story.

Before the next thing that makes your stomach drop, ask who else is in range if it goes wrong. If the answer is nobody but you, that is yours to risk. If other people are in it, tell them first or pick differently.