16/09/2022
THE BENEFITS OF RISK TAKING
A friend and I were recently chatting about whether or not we are risk-takers. People tell me I’m a risk taker - but maybe it’s in my genes.
My great-grandfather was a professional gambler who made a fortune and went on to own race horses, one of which went on to win a Grand National. My grandfather was also heavily involved in racing and gambling - returning from the bookies in 1972 he died suddenly of a heart attack and £600 in cash was found in his pocket. That is the equivalent of £7,500 today. By contrast, my father was completely risk averse.
The ability to take calculated risks is actually an essential human trait, crucial to our development as a species and as individuals. Our risk-taking ancestors were the survivors, the daring ones who took chances to adapt to a changing environment. Today, the same principle applies: in order to grow, we need to experience challenges and take risks.
Risk is a fellow traveler of ambition. Big ambition demands a willingness to take risk. Incremental changes can happen in a pretty safe way, but if you want something to be transformational, to change your life, your career, your business, then you need to think big, confront the risk, and work out how to deal with it.
It is easy, and maybe safer to settle for mediocre, but if you want to get ahead, if you want to be an anomaly, you have to act like one. Achieving your life, or career goals, demands that you take positive calculated risk. It is absolutely necessary, and while with any risk there is always something at stake, there are huge benefits.
The fact is, facing things that make us uncomfortable offers numerous psychological benefits that have been described as “the risk-taker’s advantage”. These include:
1. You’re driven to learn new skills.
2. Embracing risk helps you to overcome the fear of failure.
3. It empowers you to break through self-imposed limits.
4. You become more creative.
5. It helps you clearly define what you really want.
6. You break free from ‘average’.
7. You uncover unforeseen opportunities.
8. Your self-confidence grows.
9. You learn to trust more, because you have to.
10. You don’t achieve your dreams by playing it safe.
By not taking a risk, we run a bigger risk of being left behind. We often like to think that things will get better with time, but more often the opposite is true. Too often we focus on what might go wrong, but without taking initiative, in an effort to take the safest path, people sometimes end up with a life, business, or career that they would never have consciously chosen.
I’ll always be a risk-taker - what about you?
Hello I specialize in Reiki therapy, crystal therapy, Hopi Ear candling, which I also teach, and EFT, Hypnotherapy, and Past Life Regression.
