I’ve failed more times than I can count.
Bad luck, poor judgment, my best wasn’t good enough, setting too high a goal - or too low. And each of those failures has a consequence - at least a little bit.
I’ve also had a lot of success. That’s what happens when you are in the risk-taking game.
You’re in that game too.
We take risks all the time. We put something of value on the line with the hope of increase and the chance of decrease.
“But I’m more ‘risk-averse’.” Are you, though? Doesn’t that really mean that you are taking the chance that you are better off with the status quo? That’s a risk too! There’s no iron-clad guarantee that the status quo will be better than some alternative.
Take the Alex Honnold case. This acclaimed rock climber free soloed El Capitan - a truly magnificent and nerve-defying achievement of athleticism. Aren’t you, right now, taking the risk that your life will be better off by not doing something as extreme as Alex did? You might be totally right and rational in taking that risk, but there is a chance, albeit small, that your life might be better if you went after something like that.
So, how do you decide what risks to take?
Do you only ever take easy risks, where the chances for success are high and the consequences for failure are small? Would you ever go for broke?
What is it that you deem so valuable, you’d put nearly anything in your life on the line to get?
For Alex, he put his life on the line to achieve the feat of free soloing El Cap.
Maybe you think you shouldn’t put your life on the line for anything. It’s too high a cost for failure.
Perhaps. Though I believe you’d rise to the occasion for family, kids, a best friend, and for the most altruistic among us a stranger in need. Uncommon courage may surge in any of us when uncommon tragedy is about to strike.
But if the common tragedy of a mediocre life of wasted talents is upon you, will you have the courage to lay your comfortable status quo on the line - take a risk - and do something truly great?
Are you taking enough chances?
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