Ever considered the hidden gifts that risk can provide? Most risks fall into at least one of these three categories:
Self-Improvement Risks
These are the risks you take when you want to get ahead, learn something new or make a distant dream a reality. You take on the venture with hopes of enriching your life and advancing your career. Maybe you want to change careers, develop your skills or improve something that was identified on a performance review. On one side of the risk is the person you are or maybe even just the perception of who you are today and, on the other, the person you want to become. Imagine where this kind of risk can take you? Even better, think back and look for a risk you took in the past that delivered rockstar results. How did you make that happen and what were the benefits?
Commitment Risks
All commitment risks have emotional stakes whether you pledge yourself to a person, a value, a work team, a company or your own success as a business owner. According to Joseph Ilardo, author of Risk-Taking for Personal Growth, your emotional growth is dependent on making commitments. Who or what are you willing to say yes to? And yes – saying yes to yourself earns you extra credit!
Self-Disclosure Risks
Communication risks fall into the category of self-disclosure. Anytime you tell someone how you really feel, you’re taking the chance of self-disclosure. When you open up to others and reveal who you really are, how you feel and what you want and need, you make yourself vulnerable. This is why this type of risk feels so challenging, but consider that there are great gifts that come along with these types of risk. You can actually create an even closer connection to someone or get really clear that this is not a person or situation that you want to have in your life. Wouldn’t you rather have either of those outcomes over the bad feelings in your stomach for swallowing your truth? And here’s the good news: it IS possible to be assertive with grace and style with full respect for all those involved, including you.
All risks carry with them the possibility of failure, but challenging yourself is often the key to personal or professional growth and the gift of freedom – freedom to make your own choices and freedom to be who you really are. And what’s that worth to you?