Motivation
3 Reasons To Start Taking More Risks
If you died today, what dreams, what talents and what knowledge would die with you?
It is our natural tendency to avoid risk and play it safe, only taking chances when we have to.
We are taught to make safe investments, look for safe jobs and take the safe opportunity, but where does all that lead?
Where would any growth take place?
Taking acceptable risk is not going blind into any situation, but rather evaluating, admitting that there is a certain level of risk involved.
You will never advance without taking a certain amount of risk.
Are you willing to take risk in order to unlock infinite possibilities for yourself and others?
“When you take risks you learn that there will be times when you succeed and there will be times when you fail, and both are equally important.” – Ellen DeGeneres
3 Reasons to start taking risks:
1. Avoiding risk is also avoiding the maximum potential of your life
Fear of failure is the biggest reason people avoid risk.
Understandably so, risk would not be labeled as risk without a reasonable chance of failure. But there is also a reasonable chance of success.
Why sell yourself short?
Example, I had the option to remain in my hometown following high school graduation. Attend a good school, stay with all my friends and have a solid income.
But, I would be giving up my dream of playing division one college football.
I came to the conclusion that my desire and dream were greater than my fear of failure and would not be able to look myself in the mirror if I didn’t at least try.
Almost three years later, I am a scholarship athlete and major contributor to a D1 college football program in a major conference.
2. Without taking risks you miss out on an opportunity for growth
You must continually break down muscles if you want to get stronger.
The human body will adapt to whatever stress you put on it. If you stop adding stress (i.e. Risk) you will not make any gains.
Without consistently challenging yourself, stepping out of your comfort zone and taking risk, you limit the amount of growth in your life.
You are saying you don’t want to go any higher in life.
I would not be where I am today without taking risk.
3. The rewards, regardless of success or failure, outweigh the cost
Without taking risk and facing my fear of failure, I would not be the man I am today.
What I have learned, how I have developed and whom I have impacted are far beyond what I had ever thought possible.
Even if I had failed, never accomplishing my original goal, I have become so much more than what I previously was and created a larger vision for myself.
Now it was not easy, if it were easy everyone would take risks!
There were many days when I wanted to quit, go home, and go back to my old lifestyle. But because I stayed the course I have reaped the rewards.
A life without risk is a life not lived! Living a lifestyle of taking risk does not happen overnight.
A few ways you can implement taking risk into your daily life right now are:
- Talk to a stranger at the bus stop, train station, or at work. Engaging in simple conversation with a stranger is a great way to build self confidence and break down a limiting belief of possibilities
- If that’s too much, try a new hairstyle or outfit. Read a different kind of book, listen to a different genre of music, or eat a new type of food.
Trying something different everyday is a great way to challenge yourself and change your way of thinking.
“He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.” – Muhammad Ali
Taking risk is all about taking a chance on yourself, defining life on your terms not letting life define you.
The great men and women of our time did not become great by avoiding risk. They took a chance and made themselves great.
What risks are you willing to take?
The dialogue in your mind is the battleground where your motivation lives and dies every day. In every moment, your words are either lifting you or sabotaging your success. Unfortunately, most people are losing this battle within themselves. They are using their most powerful asset — their mental energy — to beat themselves up, play victimization games, or stop themselves from sharing their passion. (more…)
If your company did well in 2018, you must be sitting there challenged with a thought inside your head – How can I continue the streak and keep up my marketing game this year? You have knocked yourself enough to meet your 2018 goals, and all you need now is a boost of morale to face all that 2019 has in store for you. (more…)
Someone asked on the internet how they can make their country better.
They considered themselves ordinary and felt that they had to be someone special to make a difference in their country, India.
Their question made me feel a bit emotional because I can relate. I too have also dreamt of making my country better.
The most common answer to this question is to get involved in politics.
Many of you reading this find politics really boring including me. I’ve learned through my own experience that politics is not the only way you can make your country better.
Here’s how you can make your country better:
Use your voice
When I was faced with the question “How do I make my country better?” I decided to use my voice.
It was this decision that changed everything. I spent every day using my voice to stand for something. I wanted to inspire the world through entrepreneurship and personal development.
So, I started using my voice by posting on LinkedIn. I used my voice and transcribed it into words to tell the citizens of my country what I think they needed to hear.
Using your voice is incredibly scary at first. As soon as you start sharing your thoughts, many people will say nothing. You’ll get almost no feedback. As your voice starts to get louder over time (probably years) the opposite will happen and you’ll attract trolls and critics.
The hardest part about using your voice is having the courage every day to use it and not being obsessed with the outcome.
By using my voice online through blogging and LinkedIn, I managed to get a 35,000 person bank to start talking about my ideas with staff and customers, and I was voted LinkedIn Australia’s Top Voice that year.
Using the power of your voice is the number one way you can change your country.
It’s in your experiences, ideas and thoughts that you can find what it is that can help your country.
In my country, Australia, we are quite well off, but we still lack a positive mindset. Some of us work jobs we hate and we like things that only money can buy. There’s a competition to get the biggest house or the most expensive car.
It’s not a problem everyone in Australia suffers from, but it’s widespread. I believe by using my own voice to inspire people to seek alternatives, I can change my country.
The results thus far suggest I’m well on the way to changing my country.
Be kind
Changing your country seems like a huge task. It sounds like something only a Nelson Mandela sort of fella can achieve. That’s not true.
A simple understanding of the power of kindness can change your country.
There was this guy I read about online that changed his country by giving out free hugs because he couldn’t run in the local marathon. He embraced his kind nature and ended up impacting millions of people in his country.
Being kind is infectious because we’re wired to do it. When we see one person be kind, we want to do the same.
The problem in my country (and many others) is that we’ve sacrificed kindness for greed.
We’ve let our country’s economy become the most important factor instead of measuring the way we treat people and the ability of a country’s nation to overcome adversity together.
Kindness is so important because every one of our countries will face adversity, and kindness is the solution to that inevitable problem.
Pick up the trash
This one seems even smaller in impact. It’s not.
I found that by picking up the rubbish I saw in places like my apartment lobby, I was able to show myself that I care about my country.
When we care about our country, we choose to make it look beautiful so others can enjoy it. Something simple like picking up the trash can take you a long way towards helping your country.
Every country has an environmental problem and picking up rubbish can help solve it. If we all picked up one piece of trash, then each of our country’s would be a hell of a lot cleaner.
Don’t think you can’t make your country better
A lot of what I’ve learned, by trying to make my own country better, has come from the belief that I can have an impact.
There are so many people who want to do nothing more than complain which wastes time and energy and doesn’t make anyone’s country better.
The way you make your country better is by believing you can and taking one or two small actions to start the process.
The people that change their country believe they can.
If you want to increase your productivity and learn some more valuable life hacks, then join my private mailing list on timdenning.net
In “The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop,” author Dan Charnas traces how rap grew from its obscure roots in the ghettos of 1970s New York to its culmination as the world’s predominant youth pop culture and a multibillion-dollar industry.
The event that epitomized just how far hip-hop had come was the headline-grabbing partnership between the rapper 50 Cent and the upstart beverage company Glaceau, the maker of VitaminWater. It may well have been the biggest deal in hip-hop history, propelling 50 Cent’s personal net worth toward a half-billion dollars.
In this excerpt, Charnas outlines how it happened. (more…)
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Michael
Jun 1, 2015 at 9:21 am
Great article, really great to read positive stuff on a Monday morning would be great to connect
Confidence Booster
Apr 30, 2015 at 10:50 am
I think that the willingness to take calculated risks is what separates a successful person from someone who lives an unremarkable life. The tricky think about risk taking is that it needs to be a habit and a mindset, rather than an occasional choice you make on an as-needed basis. We are all creatures of habit. In my opinion, Isaac Newton’s second Law of Motion applies to human behavior: “…an object either remains at rest or continues to move at a constant velocity, unless acted upon by an external force.” Whether or not your higher self could be considered an “external force” is open to debate, but there is a source of motivation and strength within us all that needs to be tapped into if we want to take charge of our lives and makes things happen. One of my absolute favorite quotes about taking risks and motivating yourself is from the author Anais Nin (1903-1977) who stated “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”
Chris
May 6, 2015 at 5:30 pm
How would you recommend turning risk taking into a habit, do you find meditation can change this thought process or do you have a way you personally do it?
Thanks in advance
Liz Delaney
Apr 28, 2015 at 1:14 am
What an terrific article. it is always hard to take leaps of faith, even small ones, but when you do, and you succeed, you feel so good.