3 Life Changing Benefits of Taking Risks

You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore!

There comes a time in everyones’s life when you’re faced with a choice that involves risk. Perhaps you want to change careers, move to a different country, quit your job, start a business, begin a new relationship or have a child. You may be faced with a choice of doing what you know is safe or going out on a limb with your own vision.

Women are not exactly known for taking risks.

Risk is, by nature, scary. It’s uncertain and unpredictable. You’re heading off into uncharted territory. You may lose your life savings or lose face. You risk criticism and humiliation, or having to pick up the pieces and start all over again. You’re giving up what you know for what might be, the rewards can be great, but so can the cost.

So why would anybody want to take a risk?
risk gives you an opportunity to open up to your talents, interests, abilities and dreams;
risk teaches you to set clear goals and follow through;
risk allows you to feel powerful and proactive, making things happen rather than waiting for them to happen to you;
risk opens you up to new ideas, skills, opportunities and experiences;
risk allows you to conquer your fears; and
risk is exhilarating. It makes you come alive;
While you don’t need to agonise over every decision, its the big life changing risks that we face only a handful of times in our lives that can stop us in our tracks. But if we don’t step up to the challenge, we may find ourselves living a life that bores us, that has no dynamics or colour. By avoiding any kind of risk, we systematically shut down our world, making it smaller, flatter and greyer.

There’s no magic formula for managing risk, but with careful preparation and forethought, you can minimise risk and maximise odds that you’ll succeed.

3 life changing benefits of taking risks are:
Reduces the hold fear has over us – The greatest enemy of risk is fear or resistance. Often we fear something so much that we are not willing to overcome that resistance and fear to step out. When we do take a risk it reduces the strangle hold that fear has over us and our natural courage is strengthened. We are able to get into action instead of being like a deer trapped in the glare of oncoming traffic headlights.
Develops self-confidence and resilience – Taking a risk does not automatically ensure success. In fact, more people have failed taking risks than they have succeeded, but the fact is that we often have to go through failure in order to reach success. Taking risks boosts our self-confidence in our abilities and hones our strengths but more importantly we develop resilience. Resilience is that quality that puts us back on the bicycle after we have crashed, it’s what made Thomas Edison continue with his experiments and compelled Van Gogh to paint even though his work never sold.
Teaches great lessons – you can listen to the advice of others or observe how they live their lives but it is not until you try something for yourself, create your own experience, learn your own lesson that you will truly know. We all can have life knowledge, but it is life lessons that we remember. The greatest lessons of my life have been learnt through taking risks. These lessons have become part of my life wisdom and continue to guide and inform me each day.
So the question is, are you living your life or are you playing it safe because you want things nicely packaged and are too scared to take a risk?

I am not advocating that you rush off and do something reckless but ask yourself, why am I not taking the risk?

Be encouraged to get yourself into gear and start taking positive, calculated risks. It is truly better to take the risk and experience life than remain safe and slowly stagnate until it is too late!

Own Your Goal!

p.s I’d love to hear your take on this topic. Leave a comment below….

If you know someone who will benefit from reading this, share this post now. It might be the spark they need to give their goal a real go.

THANKS FOR READING & SHARING!