I found the following text through a website I was looking at for work. It is completely unrelated to my job, but I liked the words and thought someone else might appreciate reading them:
"Goal setting and risk
I just had an interesting talk with a student…She said she really wants success in her life, but not just
financial success, TOTAL success!
She said she wants it all. Money, health, love, happiness, freedom, peace of mind, etc..
And I said "GREAT! Let's do it!"
Then she reached into her sack of armour and defence arsenal and pulled out this weapon...
"But it's risky".
With a confused look on my face I responded, "Of course it's risky. LIFE is risky. You run the risk of
failing, you run the risk of succeeding, and you run the risk of regret no matter what you do."
There have been times I've regretted taking chances, and there have been times I regret not taking
chances. It's ALWAYS a risk no matter what you do (or don't do). But the perspective you take on
what risk means to you holds all the real power.
You have to fast forward through your life and take a good hard careful look at what you truly desire
at your core to answer the one question that should give you clarity on what your actions should be
at this stage of your life.
Go all the way to where you see your life ending, the very last day (hopefully many, many years from
now). What do you regret more?
Working with purpose to create the things you want, the lifestyle you desire to live, even if it took
you ten years to create it and it's hard sometimes or...
Getting to the end of your life and regret never taking the shot at all but staying in a state of
existence where you feel "safe". Wondering how much more you could have been, had, and
experienced in life if you DID take the shot?
There is risk either way. There is risk of regret for taking the shot and missing, or not taking the shot
at all. There's the risk of choking to death while you eat, the risk of a parking garage collapsing on
your head, the risk of a meteorite taking out the entire planet...
Life is full of risk (much of it is irrational) and the only honest advice I can give you is this:
The risk of regret is the heaviest burden to carry because it's over, you missed the chance, and you
cannot go backwards. What you do, what you did, and how you lived will be the last thing on your
mind at the end of your life and if you can build a vision of something that makes you peacefully
smile with beaming pride, satisfaction, and fulfilment at that time, on your last day, THAT is what
you should work towards no matter the risk.
The only way to avoid risk is to not live at all. But you're alive! You can't avoid risk nor should you.
It's really a matter of a simple perspective shift.
Re-define risk. Instead of focusing on the possibility of loss associated with risk, focus on the
possibility of triumphant victory!
Make risk mean triumph. Never lose hope, give yourself permission to not get it right all the time,
let yourself learn along the way, learn to laugh at your mistakes and see them as silly little street
signs that say "oops! That was the wrong way", embrace risk as your friend not your enemy.
Do not let the mistakes you make along the define you!
Let yourself be confident, even in the face of no evidence that you should be confident. Let
yourself find courage in your heart because life is NEVER "safe" as long as you look at risk as the
possibility of loss.
Re-define risk as the opportunity to create victory that fills your soul with pride, fills your heart
with love, floods your head with confidence (let your ego swell a little, it's ok), and cracks open
the greatest magic you have in the deepest part of your core, that part when exposed, makes tears
roll down your cheek from the overwhelming emotional power and clarity of what and who you
REALLY are inside.
When you use the power of perspective to re-define what risk means to you, you change the way
you approach things, you change the way you approach life and you find a new courage, zest, and
excitement to life that most all of us crave to feel in our hearts every day.
So is creating the life you want risky?
Yes, it is.
Is trying to stay "safe" risky?
Yes, it is.
But look at the last day of your life and make your own decision about which holds more risk...
Playing to win or playing not to lose?
There is a huge difference in the two..."
Found via http://www.motiv8.co.nz/resources/Goal%20setting%20and%20risk.pdf
