Ten reasons to risk
“Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”
T.S.Eliot
What do I mean by taking risk?
To be clear up front, this is not about encouraging everyone to become base jumpers or go swim with sharks. If that rocks your boat, go for it. But what I’m talking about is trying things we haven’t done before, pushing ourselves and revving our lives up. It might be taking on big audacious goals, or smaller things. It’s about finding more ways to explore the unknown, head into uncertainty and overcome the challenges that arise.
This isn’t about being reckless. It’s about regularly taking smart, calculated risks that have a ripple effect across our lives.
Ten reasons to be a risk taker
1. Uncover passions
When we try something new, we uncover new passions. By becoming a volunteer surf lifesaver I got into surf ski paddling (a form of kayaking). This became my main sport and something I adore. If I hadn’t joined the surf club I’d never have gotten into this sport. I would also never have done my life changing Nile expedition that involved thousands of kilometres of paddling.
2. Test and grow your capabilities and strengths
If you push yourself in something you’re already doing – say you do a bit of running, but then enter a marathon, you are going to test yourself, learn to dig deep, build physical and mental resilience. And feel proud as punch when you cross that finish line. When we take on something bigger than we have before, whether it’s a physical challenge, in our hobbies or at work, we find out what we are capable of. Through it, we get stronger and find ourselves able to go further and take on more.
3. Make your world a bigger place
Alex Honnold, a living legend who was the first person to free solo climb El Capitan in Yosemite National Park summed this up nicely. He said “I’ve pushed my comfort zone and made it bigger and bigger until these objectives that seemed totally crazy eventually fell within the realm of the possible.” Our perceived boundaries evaporate and we get closer to reaching our true potential. You run that marathon, after which a 10-kilometre run is a synch.
4. Avoid stagnating
Newton's first law: the law of inertia says, if a body is at rest it will remain at rest unless it is acted upon by a force. It’s easy to put our lives on cruise control and play it safe. Life can become Groundhog Day and we stop creating our future and instead aimlessly amble into it. With limited goals and purpose, we go through the motions and the days and weeks blur into one. When we bring in something new, push ourselves and take back control, we start living intentionally with more purpose and getting highs from our accomplishments, overcoming fear and doing things we might never have considered.
5. Build confidence
There are a few popular definitions of self-confidence in the realms of psychology including believing in oneself (Benabou & Tirole, 2002), which is nice and simple. Another from the Psychology Dictionary Online defines it as an individual’s trust in his or her own abilities, capacities and judgements or belief that he or she can successfully face day to day challenges and demands. That belief and trust comes from proving to ourselves what we can do. To do that, we have to push ourselves and get our comfort zone.
6. Build courage
Mandela wisely said, "I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” Like the building of our confidence, by taking risks and heading into the unknown where we can’t guarantee the outcome and we face things that we are afraid of, we build our courage. Things that we once feared, lose their power over us when faced and overcome. Courage is like a muscle, the more we use it, the stronger it gets.
7. Self-knowledge
In psychology self-knowledge is described as “actual genuine information one possesses about oneself” (Morin & Racy, 2021). This is everything from our personality traits and behavioural patterns to what we believe, our values, our needs and preferences and more (Morin & Racy, 2021). Living life in a narrow, unchanging lane isn’t going to help us explore all of that. It takes the breadth of experience to uncover it.
8. Being uncomfortable becomes familiar
By getting out of comfort zones on a regular basis and the feeling of discomfort that comes with it starts to become familiar. Maybe eventually, we get comfortable being uncomfortable as we face fears and enter into the unknown. Regardless, just letting that feeling become familiar and something we don’t shy away from, but instead lean into is gold.
“You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.” Brian Tracy
9. Develop tools
As we push ourselves or try new things, we develop tools – everything from organisational tools to mindset tools. The latter, I think, are particularly valuable. These are the things we can’t outsource. It’s those tools that keep us going when times get tough and help us face things that scare us. As David Goggins says we can “callous the mind”. Like the callouses I get on my hands from paddling, we can callous our mind through regularly pushing and testing ourselves and overcoming difficulties. Shocks and stressors strengthen us and we learn to not shy away from discomfort and challenge.
10. More opportunities
All of these things listed will lead to more opportunities. That could be because you have the confidence and courage to say yes to things you might once have shied away from. Or by making our world a bigger place, more opportunities come our way. By taking risks, we create opportunities. By developing our capabilities and strengths, new doors are open to us.
All of these things makes us grow and brings us closer to becoming all that we can be. If we keep our foot on first and play it safe too much and we limit our growth.
I could bang on for days about the benefits of taking more calculated risks. Do live by what I preach? Yeah, I try to. I push myself in sport, go to new places, go on adventures and expeditions and do things that I am afraid of. Do I nail it every time? No way, I repeatedly fall short. But there are lessons every time.
What I do know is that the greatest experiences of my life have involved taking some kind of risk. I love the feeling that my world is constantly getting bigger and I am growing and learning. I’m addicted to the forward motion.
“Progress always involves risks. You can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first.” Frederick Wilcox
Summary
We all have a choice – to settle for the seemingly safe and familiar or we can step away from the accustomed and open ourselves to challenges, the unknown and opportunities to grow. I encourage you to join me on this never-ending exploration into what’s possible for each of us.
When we do this regularly, the ripple effect throughout our lives is unstoppable. We truly live and constantly take steps to reach our highest potential. And hopefully have some fun on the way!
Sarah x x