Risks

Tonight I’m thinking about risks. In many ways, year #43 has been a year of risk. Project and professional risk. Real estate and home remodel risk. And a few others.

Risk doesn’t have to entail climbing Mt. Everest or leaving everything you know behind to move to India.

To me, risk is anything that challenges you. Pushes you outside your comfort zone. Makes you pause. Weigh pro’s and con’s. Consider if you are capable – and in some cases – brave enough – to go for it.

This year I’ve chosen to go for it in a few different ways. Some have worked out and others haven’t. It’s easy to celebrate the risks that work out. It’s more challenging to embrace the risks that don’t work out as part of your life fabric. The obstacles that make you stronger. Learn about yourself.

Of course, there are a million words of wisdom about risk and failure. Grit is a popular concept that I’m a big fan of (made popular by the amazing book by Angela Duckworth). If I could wish my kids any trait, it would be grit. But a lot of the short quotes are a bit cheesy and over-simplified.

One caught my eye by the wise anonymous “Take risks: If you win, you will be happy. If you lose: you will be wise.” Close….but I don’t like to think of life in terms of winning and losing. And I think you can gain wisdom from winning, and losing doesn’t have to make you unhappy. So scratch that one.

Or the thought-provoking “Your biggest risk will be the one you don’t take.” That makes you pause. And feels a bit scary. But I think you shouldn’t take risks for risk-sake alone. You should take risks when it matters to you. When your heart pulls you in a direction. When you can’t stop thinking about an idea. If you’re lucky, this happens enough to make you feel alive. 

Of course, the worst thing about risk is that you can fail. And failure, generally speaking, is really not fun. Some would say it typically sucks. But this I believe to be true – in the wise words of Wayne Gretzky, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” So I believe we must keep taking shots. Even when it’s hard. Or disappointing. Or humbling. And seek to learn from these moments. And then get back up and look for the next shot.

Ultimately, the quote at the top sums it up best for me. I would hate to get to the end of my life and not know what could have happened. Risk. The best ones are scary – but the most rewarding – whether you succeed or fail, you will know.