Though risk may be easiest to observe in macro level trends, it often hides unseen in the normal routine of our everyday lives.
Risk is ever-present but only noticed when we stop to think about it. Consider the risks you face in your own life:
- Do you regularly drive 10 mph over the speed limit? While talking on a cell phone?
- Do you smoke?
- Are you obese or overweight?
- Did you ever care for someone with a communicable disease?
- Did you ever engage in risky or unprotected sex?
- Have you ever converted from one religious or political belief system to another?
- Did you ever move away from home?
- Have you ever left one career for an entirely different one?
- Have you ever strongly disagreed with your boss but bit your lip and said nothing?
- Is there something that you really want to do but fear has prevented you from doing it?
As your answers likely suggest, almost everything we do (or fail to do), on some level, involves a risk.
Whether it is leaving home, fighting for our beliefs, confronting the schoolyard bully, or simply trying something new, risk-taking is as elemental to life as inhaling and exhaling.
Yet, given risk-taking’s central role in the human experience, it is strange that there is no guide for improving one’s risk-taking abilities. Instead, we are left to grope through our experiences like mapless explorers.
Solution: Take the Right Risks
The right risks are focused, and rich with meaning. They transcend the bipolar fields of gain and loss and are instead anchored to a higher purpose. Rather than feed one’s ego, Right Risks strengthen one’s character. They are fulfilling not because they are fun and exciting (although they often are), and not because they are materially rewarding (although they can be), but because they transport us from where we are to where we want to be.
Are your risks transporting you? Do your people pursue risk with accountability and ownership?
Want to learn more about leadership in your everyday life? Check out these related posts:
Contact Giant Leap at info@www.giantleapconsulting.com to learn about our leadership and risk workshops.
Image via Pixabay
