5 Benefits of Taking Risks

Risk, in my opinion, is another word for life. Life is a risk and without taking risks we have no life.

I have noticed that people these days seem to be overly cautious, risk-averse and often crave a secure and safe outcome, but is this life?  As a modern society, we seem to be so busy sanitising our existence through political correctness and warning labels that for many it is now a learned behaviour to avoid risks, rather than embrace them.

In order to achieve anything in life, we have to take positive, calculated risks.  Nothing can be achieved without risk and apart from this obvious outcome, there are other numerous benefits to taking risks.

Here are just five benefits to taking risks.

Reduces the hold fear has over us

The greatest enemy of risk is fear or resistance.  Often we fear something so much that we are not willing to overcome that resistance and fear to step out.  When we do take a risk it reduces the stranglehold that fear has over us and our natural courage is strengthened.  We are able to get into action instead of being like a deer trapped in the glare of oncoming traffic headlights.

Opens up new possibilities

When we are risk-averse we are immobile and stagnant.  We attempt in vain to imagine the possible outcome but it is not until we set creation in motion with risk that new opportunities and possibilities avail themselves to us.  The planet has always been filled with rich abundance but it was not until the first man built a boat and set sail that he discovered the vast possibilities available to him.

Develops self-confidence and resilience

Taking a risk does not automatically ensure success.  In fact, more people have failed taking risks than they have succeeded.  The fact is we often have to go through failure in order to reach success.  Taking risks boosts our self-confidence in our abilities and hones our strengths but more importantly, we develop resilience and you exercise your courage.  Resilience is that quality that puts us back on the bicycle after we have crashed, it’s what made Thomas Edison continue with his experiments and compelled Van Gogh to paint even though his work never sold.

Teaches great lessons

You can listen to the advice of others or observe how they live their lives but it is not until you try something for yourself, create your own experience, learn your own lesson that you will truly know. We all can have life knowledge, but it is life lessons that we remember.  The greatest lessons of my life have been learnt through taking risks.  These lessons have become part of my life wisdom and continue to guide and inform me each day.  I own these lessons, they are mine and I could not have learned them from a book, a lecture or through avoiding the risk.

Leads to rewards

We all know people who seem to be so lucky and great things “just happen” for them.  If you look carefully things are not just happening for them, they are taking risks and reaping the rewards.  If you want to achieve any dream, regardless of how large or how small you always have to take a risk.  The first risk is being willing to overcome your resistance that is holding you back. You could be saying, “I took a risk and failed, there was no reward there for me!” well I would like to challenge that and say the reward was overcoming your fear, experiencing different possibilities, gaining self-confidence and growing in resilience, and learning new lessons.  Sometimes the reward is not extrinsic but intrinsic.

So the question is, are you living your life or are you slowly dying because you want things nicely packaged and are too scared to take a risk?

I am not advocating that you rush off and do something foolhardy but ask yourself, why am I not taking the risk?

Be encouraged to get yourself into gear and start taking positive, calculated risks.  It is truly better to take the risk and experience life than remain safe and slowly stagnate to death.