The Power of Risk: How Taking Chances Can Take You Closer to Your Destiny

Are you a risk-taker? We know people who are more naturally risk takers... is there something "special" about them?

I talk about two articles that address risk taking, one talks about mental exercises and how it can lead to a better life by evaluating things differentl

Thank you for your time and interest in this podcast! I invite you to leave a heartfelt review on whichever podcast platform you listen to. It does so much to bring exposure to the podcast and helps lift others up!

To leave a review, helping us spread the contents of this podcast- click on this link! Thank you!

Connect with me!

Website: In the Rising Podcast Website

Email: Bettina@intherising.com

In the Rising Pinterest:

In the Rising Facebook

Check out the Website: Fit after Breast Cancer

Transcript

Greetings. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Whatever time of day you're actually listening to this podcast I welcome you to In the Rising with Bettina Brown. And the purpose of this podcast is to just challenge yourself. Challenge myself as well into leading a bigger, better life that we're proud of and excited about.

Not just right now, but one day when we are reflecting on what we did, what we had left to do, that kind of thing. So, I always talk about living a life that's really more in alignment with your hopes and your dreams and living and leaving, excuse me, behind the Shame blame game that really does nothing for you.

It doesn't advance you emotionally, psychologically, or forward in your life at all. And I start off by saying I'm not a licensed counselor, psychologist, psychiatrist, but I am a healthcare professional who's had the opportunity to work with many, many people who are really facing their mortality with either a terminal diagnosis of any kind, but particularly cancer.

And so, when you are looking at the end of your life with the way your body's feeling, you start to reflect and you start to have conversations with people. Not always, but most people would talk to me about what they wish they would've done. And the big thing is to get towards the end of your life, whether it is from something like that, or just towards the end of your life, if it's a natural, natural passage into the next phase.

To look back on life and say, you know, I took the risks that I wanted to, I have fewer regrets because I made some changes, or I have no regrets at all. And so today I want to talk about taking risks. This topics come up all week long, and I had a wonderful conversation with someone who flat out said, I'm a risk taker.

I'm going to do this. I, I went all in and it paid off. And, you know, I, I just wanted to try this out and for this person being a risk taker really did pay off not just financially, but for the community as well. And I wanted to look at what makes us take a little bit more risk and what makes us not want to.

So I did do a little bit of research the way I always am trying to lead and, and read and move forward. But one of the big things I found is that taking some risk is very important to help you lead a better life. The first thing that comes to mind is that there's like two groups. One, that's the risk taker and one that's not.

And when we say risk taker, we tend to think of that person who's willing to drive a hundred miles an hour. They're race car drivers. Um, the people who go paragliding, parachuting off the edges of cliffs rock climbing without any, um, you know, protective gear. That is a risk taker, but you don't have to go to that kind of.

Extreme of it just being a risk taker of asking someone for dinner, being a risk taker to changing your job, being a risk taker, to remodel your house by yourself. Those are all things in life that can also involve a great deal of risk because it may be for you facing some fear. Now, the thing is, sometimes we want to play it safe.

And by playing it safe, we feel that we're going to succeed a little more. Well, this is much safer option. There's a lot more security, but security tends to come to some extent, a small, invisible set of jail bars. Along with it, security keeps you in place. There is a need for security, like with your family, with your relationships.

You need to have a secure relationship with your partner. You need to have a secure relationship with your child. That they feel comfortable coming to you, talking to you, all of that. Yeah, there is that. But for you to move forward in your own life, there is a little bit of playing it safe to the point where you're not moving at all, where you're not even playing at all.

And so the thing about it is we think that sometimes when we want to succeed, that we cannot fail. And so the first and foremost thing is you have to learn how to fail. That we do have this negative view of failure, you know, but it actually is this important tool for building character, building resilience, and persistence.

And so, you know, there are all these examples in life, um, who overcame what. And we love those. We call them rags to riches stories because it makes us feel like anyone can do it. And the reason for that is because pretty much anyone can. We all have different opportunities, but if we do not do something, we end up doing nothing.

So succeeding every single time does not mean that you're not, you know, succeeding every, you know, in general. But for that to happen, in order for us to face our fear, we'd have to recognize what people have, who are risk takers compared to those of us that may not be as much risk takers. And that word is confidence.

That's why this topic of taking risk belongs on this podcast. There's a lot of research that shows that at least out of successful entrepreneurs, 95% show in their little quizzes that they have confidence and they actually have a higher level of confidence than the regular person. So, it doesn't mean they have extra gifts, extra social skills that they have some extra money.

They have some extra, but it's confidence. So when you're looking at something and you're like, I don't know, I'm not going to take that. I risk, I don't want to do that. It might help you to pause and say, is this a confidence issue? Is, am I saying this is just too big of a risk because I'm afraid? Or is it because it really just is too big for you?

It can make you pause and, and look at that and figure out how you're going to come over it. So, with that, I have some mental strength exercises that can help you conquer that fear and move forward into taking more risks. And this is number one, balance your emotions. With logic. A lot of us like to think we're logical thinkers, right?

Well, logically this, I grew up with this, you know, and I don't mean it in a bad way. Well, logically this is the right thing. Common sense would tell you, and I'm a proponent of common sense, but the thing is, we often evaluate something where we think it's logical. But we are 100%, or if not 90%, evaluating that from an emotional standpoint, we are thinking if we are more scared, then I logically there's just a huge risk involved.

If it's moving across country, for example, and we're petrified, we think this is a huge risk. And it may very well be, but is it as big as we put it out to be? Or is it because we're so emotionally tied in our anxiety and fear that we are going to shift the way we think? And a lot of research shows the way we shift, the way we think has more to do with things than the actual logic does.

So, we may get in our car and drive from point A to point B clear across town and not think another thing of it. But we may be petrified to go in front of people and talk or have a presentation behind Zoom. You know, the odds are in your favor that you're going to safely finish that presentation without physical harm.

The odds are less in your favor about driving, but which one do a lot of us prefer? So it has nothing to do with logic. It has to do with our perception of the risk involved. And how are we going to handle it if it doesn't work out? Well, we don't think about driving because we have to drive every day, drive every other day, take our kids to practice.

We cannot think about death every single time we get in the car. But we also don't think about, 

·       “Hey, if this ride doesn't work out, what's going to happen?” 

·       “Do I have all my particulars in orders, my will in order?”

·       “Is my living will in order? Have I paid my bills?”

·       “Have I had the conversation about life and death with my family?”

You know, we don't think that way and you don't need to have a conversation about life and death, about a speech either. So just checking, is this an emotional view or is this really the way I'm thinking? The other one is take steps to reduce the risk that you're facing. So, if you're trying to. Add on something to your life doing, you know, like, I want to open my own business.

You want to start that. You know what? Open that side business and continue it while you're working your main job. So that way you're not really just quitting your job and being all in. It might help you mitigate and reduce that perceived risk, which may be very well, you may have a mortgage, you have to pay.

But you're able to start getting in there versus sitting there on your regular job and never ever opening your side business because, well, there's risk involved. Anything. Anything has risk, anything worth doing in involves risk. So how do you then build this mental strength? A lot of it is just facing the fact.

That you have the ability and the confidence and the tools you need right now. Right now it's just like that song. It's an eighties song. I don't even know who sings it. Right now you have what you need everything, and in ways that you're not fully confident yet you will build that. The more you recognize that the skills you are looking for, you can either learn them.

Have a mentor teach you, or you can learn them through quote unquote failure after failure. But at the end of the day, it is so much more of an interesting conversation to have or memoir to write when you talk about the things that scared you to death, but you did them anyway. And that is really what all of this is about.

So, I hope you enjoy this podcast. Thank you so much for spending some of your minutes here today, and I wish you well. And until next time, let's keep building one another up.