Risk is scary. It’s unpredictable and uncertain because we are leaving our comfort zone and heading off into uncharted territory, but no matter what, everyone faces a time in their life when we have to make a decision that involves risk.
Maybe you want to move to a different country, change careers or quit your job, start your own business, begin a new relationship or decide to leave it all behind and travel the world. When we are faced with the choice of doing something we know and is safe or following our dreams and going out on a limb, we risk to lose our face or our life savings, we risk humiliation and criticism and we may have to pick up the pieces and start all over again.
So why should you risk everything? Because the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward will be. You get the opportunity to follow your dreams and have no regrets, you are proactive and powerful and make things happen, you allow yourself to conquer your fears, you open up to new experiences, skills and opportunities and taking risks is exhilarating and makes you come alive.
If we avoid taking any kind of risk in our lives, we systematically make our world smaller and eventually shut down. Here are our TOP 10 reasons why you should take the leap and take more risks.
#1 Risks Open Countless Opportunities
A lot of people think that taking risks is dangerous and ill-advised, but keep in mind that most of the time those ideas come from people who think negatively. You can only start something new and big if you take risks, because it opens the doors to countless opportunities that you can’t even imagine right now. When it comes to taking a risk it’s always 50/50. You could win or you could lose, but why would you want to entertain the idea of losing? See taking risks as an opportunity to success and living your dream life, because you don’t want to end up saying ‘I should have…’
#2 Risks Breed Confidence and Resilience
Taking risks needs courage and you have to take responsibility for your actions. While taking risks doesn’t automatically ensure that you will succeed, fact is that oftentimes you have to go through failure to reach success. If you have the ability to take risks, you give your self-confidence a big boost and believe in your abilities and strengths and you will develop resilience in the face of adversity. Just think about Thomas Edison, he continued with his experiments even though he failed over and over again until he found the solution and gave us the light bulb.
#3 Risks Help Us Overcome Fear
What’s the best way to overcome your fear of riding a roller coaster? Ride it! Failure is hard to take and a bitter pill to swallow for a lot of people and taking risks may just be the answer. Fear paralyzes us to take action, but if we continually overcome our fear and step outside our comfort zone, fear will lose that strangle hold is has over us and we naturally strengthen our courage muscle. By taking risks you understand that failure could be an option, but you know the consequences this may lead to and you know that ultimately, failure is a big part of success.
#4 Risks Teach Great Lessons
We can listen to the advice of others or observe how others live their lives, but until we put ourselves out there, take some risks and try something for ourselves we won’t truly understand. We have to create our own experiences and learn our own lessons to truly know. We can gather all the knowledge in the world, but it’s the life lessons that will give us the wisdom we remember that will improve our life in unimaginable ways.
#5 Risks Spark Creativity
Taking risks inevitably comes with challenges and obstacles, which will force us to decide whether to give up and let go of our dreams or to start to thinking creatively to overcome and solve our problems. If you choose to solve your problems, you will push yourself to innovate in new ways that you haven’t thought of before. Innovation is born out of risk and risks shake us into action to stimulate creative results.
#6 Risks Bring Success Within Reach
Some people believe that we can just sit around and wait for success to magically fall into our laps, however, in order to be successful, you have to go out and pursue success and taking risks is a necessary step to be proactive and achieve success. You have to put one foot in front of the other and start walking towards success. Get comfortable with the unknown, experiment along the way and take action even if you don’t know exactly what results you are going to get. The only way to get your desired outcome is to leave your comfort zone, take risks and believe in yourself.
#7 Risks Make You Grow
If you are willing to take risks, whether that’s in your personal life or in your professional life, you will get the opportunity to grow and reach your full potential. Change and growth go hand in hand. If you repeat the same routine every single day, you won’t learn new things, you won’t discover new things about yourself and you will stay stagnant. Take risks, make mistakes and explore yourself and the world and your growth with take leaps you’ve never imagined.
#8 Risks Make You Stand Out
Most people take the route of least resistance because in general, most people lack the self-confidence to leave their comfort zone. When you take risks, you are forced to put yourself out there. You’re not simply following the program, but you take a chance and let people see your ideas. Because it is so rare for people to take risks, once you do take risks, you will stand out and get noticed, which will help you to advance your career and get further in life.
#9 Risks Help You Achieve Your Dreams
Taking risks won’t just get you further on the path that you’re already on, it may actually open up a whole new world of possibilities that you haven’t even considered, yet. Yes, the world outside your comfort zone can be scary, but we have to be willing to take risks and put ourselves out there to achieve our dreams and realize our full potential. Go after what you’re passionate about, pursue your dreams and don’t play if safe.
#10 Risks Eliminate Regret
A lot of us look back at earlier times in our lives and think about situations where we could have done something differently if we would have chosen a different path. Thoughts like ‘I should have taken the job across the country, I would be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company right now.’ may pop up and these thoughts and feelings of regret have the potential to make us depressed. The only way we can eliminate these kinds of regrets is to take risks and take the opportunities that present themselves. If we can overcome our fears and take a leap of faith, believe in ourselves and put in the work to make things happen, we will live a life of no regrets.
There is no magic trick to managing risk, but if you carefully prepare and anticipate what’s to come, you can minimize the risk while maximizing the odds that you will succeed. Don’t let fear stop you from taking action that brings you closer to your dream life. Feel the thrill of taking a risk and it will pay off in a big way. You will become more successful, confident, intelligent and happy.
CLOSE YOUR EYES, TAKE A DEEP BREATH AND TAKE THE LEAP
Joschi & Monika
#BoldNaked