How do you feel about taking risks? How high is your tolerance for risk? How often do you find yourself taking a leap of faith? If it’s not that often, then I think it’s time for a wake up call.
You’ve heard me say before that the bigger the risk the bigger the reward, and that risk, reward and bliss seem to all go hand in hand. But today, I want to talk about how your tolerance for risk impacts your potential for success. If you subscribe to Tyler Tervooren’s newsletter you already know that risks have made history. The willingness to take risks has resulted in some of the greatest accomplishments of humanity. Your tolerance for risk will have a profound impact on how far you can push the limits of what’s possible in your life. Let’s say you spend your whole life playing it safe. Occasionally something noteworthy will happen for you. But, think about how much you will have missed out on at the end of it all.
Creations of the Mind
As I get ready for one of the greatest changes in my life, I can’t help but to feel a sense of uncertainty. Watching my living room become empty and posting ads on craigslist, I feel like I’m dismantling my own work of art that I think of as my life in LA. After all there are other things I’m supposed to be doing. My 33rd birthday is around the corner and I don’t seem to show any signs of living a “normal life.” But what I have to remember is that all of this is nothing but a creation of the mind. The same mind that is brilliant, daring, adventurous, creative, also can cause us to be our own worst enemy and avoid taking big risks
- Fear: I’d be lying to you if I told you I was fearless. I’ve held back more than a few times over the last year. Most of those times it’s been fear, fear of uncertainty, fear of rejection, fear of failure. I’m afraid of being stuck in a foreign country, I’m afraid that the surf might be beyond my skill level and I’m afraid that I might be right back where I started in college, with a blank slate and possibility. So really that just excites me. But we have to remember that just like our mind creates all these fears, it also creates the flipside of all this.
- Doubt: When you decided to take big risks, bigger than any you’ve taken before, doubt likes to rear it’s ugly head in and weigh in on your decisions. This creation of the mind does not really have your best intentions in mind. It’s just there to tell you “hey, you might not make it.” I’d say tell it to fuck off, but that doesn’t seem to do the trick. You could try to ignore it, but it seems to get more persistent when you ignore it. It’s only in acceptance that it will lose its power because it’s no longer in a fight against you. You might have to just let it be there in order for it to dissolve.
- Uncertainty: The only thing that is certain in life is that it will unfold however it does. Sometimes it doesn’t go according to plan. You can control your actions, but you can’t necessarily control the consequences of those actions. If everything was completely predictable and certain, life wouldn’t be very interesting and at the end of it you wouldn’t have much of a story to tell. Life doesn’t have a refund policy, so rather than trying to buy a new one, always remember you’re amazing just the way you are.
- Anxiety: Anxiety is one of the minds favorite things to create. We love inventing the worst of all possibilities, getting hit by cars, getting dumped, never falling in love, and more. The list of mind created causes of anxiety is endless. It’s incredible how good we are at this considering it’s not a very useful feature of the brain. If your car dealer sold you a car that broke down everytime traffic got intense, you’d probably wondering what the hell was wrong and return the car even if it meant taking a loss. Unfortunately or fortunately you’re stuck with your mind. So rather than try to fight it, just let it go on with its insanity and realize that it’s not you.
The truth is we’re all a bit batshit crazy because we all do this. The good thing to know is you’re not alone. Sometimes you have to realize that none of this is you, but it’s all just a creation of the mind. It’s only by taking risks and pushing past our comfort zones that we create the possibility of amazing things in our lives.
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I help writers who have fear of writing, so I know how slippery it can be. Frustratingly, sometimes I'm a lot better at helping others outwit it than I am for myself. My big fear is marketing my business. But, you're right, it's all an invention of the mind. I love how this post dares me to take some extra risks today and not worry so much about perceived rejection.
Good luck with your big adventure! Sounds like a major move. And being 33 is totally to your advantage. (Old enough to have some life wisdom, young enough to go with the flow.) I'm 51 and still moving from state to state, either for jobs or in a quest to find a place I really resonate with. You are young AND you're a doer. Plus someone who thinks outside the box. I think flexible people are the ones who survive change the best.
~ Milli
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