How I Learned to Take Risks

Posted by Rod Jones on

How I Learned to Take Risks: The very word risk – sounds menacing! The unknown is more than capable of tormenting. Remember your first day of school? It usually starts out when you are a mere five years old. That day teaches you one thing for sure, fear of the unknown, and what it's like to be scared. Then slowly but surely, we learn to adjust to those fears and insecurities. The question is; no one really ever gets out of that mindset.

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Just getting out of bed in the morning sets you up for a day of risks. Commuting to and from anywhere is filled with risk. But virtually everyone is willing to take that chance. If you let your conscious mind think about it you usually play the probability game.

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Virtually every course in life we choose to take, there is a chance of loss. I call it, "the scared rabbit syndrome," in my own life. What is the possibility of the worst thing happening? Our imaginations are never reluctant to come up with all kinds of unmitigated disasterly outcomes that have absolutely no chance of ever occurring. But for some reason, we all seem to find some sort of weird gratification in following that course of thinking.

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To achieve any worthwhile goal in life, you're going to be faced with risks. What would you think to be your own personal strategy for dealing with risk? Here's my take on risk: There is risk uncannily associated with decision-making. I always ask myself two questions: "what is the worst possible thing that can happen?" the second question I ask myself, "if I don't do it, nothing will happen. If I do go through with it, something wonderful has a good chance of happening." Basically you have improved your odds of success by challenging the risk.

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It helps to think clearly on what your ultimate baseline is. There's an old adage that always comes to mind when I think of this, "even a monkey, doesn't let go of one limb, until he has the other one insight." Don't be overly cautious when facing decisions that could lead to unintended risks. On the same hand, it creates mental ‘thoughtway’ That clearly spells out all of your options.

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Most everyone, myself included; will blow out of proportion what we perceive to be risk associated with accomplishing something that is really important to us. Speculating on every possible scenario. But when it's all said and done; you really over inflated the risk because your imagination feels compelled to do so as part of everyone's internal survival instinct. That's really good we all need to survive, ethically of course.

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Getting back to my "thoughtway," this is a useful tool when you learn to adapt your mind to this form of thinking. Basically you're clearing the path in your mind of all the clutter so you can come to well thought out conclusions. By doing this you will discover that the risks you believe you will encounter will somehow be not so formidable. Give it a try, life's risks are what makes life interesting.

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"The horizon was further than I thought, but I knew perseverance and attitude would take me to the Tree of Life." Rod Jones artist

 


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