RISK
“You can’t shrink your way to growth”
One thing is for certain, nothing will ever be accomplished without a certain degree of risk. Wherever you are happy with taking risks or not, this is going to be something you will have to handle at every step of the journey. The key is to become better at taking risks and hopefully more successful each time.
Every change brings about a crisis of insecurity! That’s the real problem with RISK, it doesn’t come with certainty. As humans, we have a natural driver to build in as much security as we can. We spend a lot of our time consciously or unconsciously looking for security and mitigating risks in our lives. We are programmed to avoid conflict and uncertainty. So is it surprising that when we put ourselves in the place where we actively take risks we struggle with anxiety? However the irony of this situation is that every time we want to grow in something, or if we want to learn something new it will require embracing change, uncertainty and risk. Berne Brown framed it like this, “You can have comfort or courage but you can’t have both”. They are seasons where we choose comfort and these are important times however, these will always be followed by seasons of courage.
The role of fear in our lives is important to our survival. It’s fear that tells us NOT to touch the burning stick or drive so fast around the bend etc Without it we would most likely not be around long enough to tell the stories. It is hardwired inside of us. Fear, however, was never supposed to be behind the steering wheel of our lives but rather in the back seat reminding us to be careful. If you are reading this book then I guess you have already taken many risks in your life to get you to this point. You are not unfamiliar with how it feels and how fear can often interrupt a good nights sleep to remind us of the risks. In order to move from where you now to where you want to be is going to take renewed courage and a renewed appetite to take risks. This appetite is fueled by our WHY that we previously discussed.
Enemies to risk-taking – ‘Live Large’