It’s so hard to take on large commitments because they open us up to risk. Risk is scary, it could mean a big failure — emotionally, physically, or financially. Our brains don’t like considering the potential of those risks, and they convince us that it’s not worth it.
This fear of risk holds us back from our full potential. We end up not taking the leaps we should because we’re too worried about the risk, and not focused enough on the rewards.
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far it is possible to go.” — T.S. Eliot
If you want to succeed at anything, you have to take risks. Nothing is ever gained without the potential of a lose. This doesn’t mean you should jump in blindly or impulsively, it just means that it’s impossible to mitigate every risk, so you have to be willing to accept certain risks and commit regardless.
Because of the nature of risk, we like to form fallback options. We want to know that if something isn’t going to work out, there’s a safety net waiting to catch us. It gives us a sense of comfort that we’re not really taking as big a risk as it seems, we feel like we’ve outsmarted the risk.
But when you have fallback options, you’re dividing your energy and your thoughts. You’re giving yourself an excuse not to be fully committed to your plans. Because if it gets too hard or too scary, you can just take option B … or C, or D.
“It’s easier to hold your principles 100 percent of the time than it is to hold them 98 percent of the time.” — Clayton M. Christensen
If you’re fully committed, though, option B isn’t an option at all. Without fallback options, the only place to put all of your energy and brainpower is into your plans for success. You have to go forward, one way or another, and overcome the challenges you’re going to face.
What does it take to be a risk-taker? And is it possible to turn yourself into one? What makes a risk-taker?
Our ability to take a chance and be comfortable with an unknown outcome is affected by our own psychological make-up, the physiological functions in our bodies, the culture in which we grew up, and wider societal acceptance of risky behavior.
In order to be a better risk-taker, it is vital to let your subconscious take over sometimes Our conscious brain trains us to focus and use lessons from past experiences to make better decisions. But according to Michael S. Gazzaniga, one of the world’s foremost cognitive neuroscientists, between 90% and 98% of mental activity is unconscious. In order to be a better risk-taker, it is vital to let your subconscious take over sometimes, helping your brain to pick up long-lost memories and connect ideas.
The brain is optimally designed to take both risk and certainty, focus and unfocus and for every human being learning how to balance the equation is crucial.
Perhaps ultimately you will need to be willing to take a chance on yourself, to accept that you can make the right choices and cope with the bad ones should things go awry. But it’s worth reminding yourself that risks are almost always necessary for progress.
So many of our modern-day activities are neutered of any real challenge; diluted, softened, reduced to a lowest common denominator. The cause of that process is, ultimately, fear – on a societal level. Fear of failure, fear of injury, fear of liability, but always fear. The irony, of course, is that by reducing risk and protecting ourselves from the associated fear, we produce a less capable and more fearful population. Our perception of risk is all wrong. The reality is that by engaging with risk on a regular basis and learning to engage with it and manage it, we massively reduce the less obvious but much greater risks that inevitably do end up causing all the damage: obesity, heart disease, postural problems, stress and all the related ailments of the modern industrialised world.
Positive stressors is about reminding yourself that your body and mind are evolved to adapt to, overcome and manage an enormous variety of challenges and testing scenarios, and that in fact the process of doing so is therefore the best way to maintain your health and natural function. Positive stressors, they’re called. Adversity with enormous reward. Risk with benefits.
When you engage with that stressor to find out who you were, there is improvement, there is transformation. You would know now that the person who landed was different – subtly, but significantly – from the person who took off. You had gained something, understood something about yourself on an experiential level.
People don’t climb mountains and rocks because they are there, they climb them because something isn’t there: something inside them they seek to find, to know.
And you don’t need to climb a mountain or a rock for it, when it can be found right here on the streets of our own lives.
Is there such a thing as a lucky person or a lucky streak? And does belief in good and bad luck play a part in whether we are prepared to take chances?
Research has suggested that people who think of themselves as lucky actually are lucky, because they are more willing to take advantage of opportunities. Those who believe they are inherently lucky tend to be of an optimistic bent, and get more optimistic about the likelihood of future success after a seemingly lucky event – a “lucky break” makes them more confident and optimistic.
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