The answer [to avoiding dings] is easy: don’t surf.
Degree33 Surfboards
Equipment will get damaged and (eventually) break.
You get tired and scared and hurt by turns.
There will be scars.
So what?
You should recognise that being uncomfortable, getting hit, is part of what it means to play the game.
It helps to count the likely cost – to anticipate the emotional labour – before you start.
Don’t go looking for trouble, but expect it.
When trouble comes, ask yourself if it’s the product of your own stupidity (avoid in future), bad luck (which will happen again), or bad actors (you should learn how to spot them)… or if it’s simply the kind of trouble that means that you’re doing what you set out to do (and can therefore take peverse pleasure in).
Solution
There is an easy alternative: don’t get in the water.
Pay a different cost (a higher one?), more slowly.
See also:
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Seth Godin’s Triangle for Change