Learn to take risks to create momentum towards success, happiness and the life you want

Do you want to create the life you want? Then you need to learn to take risks because success and happiness both require vulnerability and the ability to commit. To choose both means you ultimately choose to fail and to struggle because happiness requires struggle and commitment demands sacrifices.

I totally understand choosing to struggle and making sacrifices isn’t for everyone, but that is also why not everyone is successful or able to live their dream. We need to take risks to be happy and successful whether we like it or not. But today I will share with you how you can learn to take risks and how to make this choice a bit easier. Enjoy!

Why taking risks is necessary

I am a person who loves to take risks. It gives me a thrill of anticipation. I don’t mind struggling because I know eventually those are all opportunities for me to learn and grow. I seek failure because I believe those are the best lessons learned and only if we make mistakes and fall we can truly become better. Life might be fun and great if it is all easy but if there is no pain, no struggle and no challenge how do we get better? The most successful people all struggled. Doing what you love isn’t always fun and easy. Sometimes you have to push through a hard time, sometimes you need to go to your limits just to see that you are capable of so much more than you thought. You need to have those moments of almost fatigue to utilize the last bit of power that is within you and expand your potential. You need those times of struggle to find the grit and resilience within you that makes you better, greater and stronger. But to set yourself up for this kind of growth, you need to push out of your comfort zone and take risks. Without taking the risk to do something you could potentially fail you will also not get the chance to do it better. Showing up for yourself when there is uncertainty and you don’t have control over the outcome is where the greatest potential for growth, joy and dreams lies.

At the same time, you need to learn to commit (which I could definitely use some improvement on, but I am working on it). Without committing yourself to that path that will take you to greater happiness and to success you will always be doing all but nothing really. All the most successful people (and trust me I know this, because I study them ever since I am 15 years old) have committed to their profession. They know how to say no to themselves and the world and fully dedicate themselves to this one goal they have in life or this current phase of it. But true commitment also means true sacrifice. You cannot fully commit to something without giving something else up. Sometimes this sacrifice is only temporary, but sometimes it’s permanent. Success and happiness isn’t always an easy choice sometimes we need to give up something we love to gain something even better. But the thing with choosing commitment and sacrifice is that we never completely know if it was the right choice. So we need to take risks again to potentially sacrifice the “wrong” thing or commit to a path that does not align with who we are. But we never know until we try and if we never try we will most likely be unhappy because we always ask “what if” and we will definitely not be successful. So we need to take the risk of not knowing how this will turn out to give ourselves the chance to be happy and successful.

How taking risks can help you create the life you want

Taking a risk is not all about giving things up or and setting ourselves up for failure. It also about creating room and space for ourselves to become who we truly are. In times of hardship true strength and resilience comes to the surface. Those are the times where you realize our true potential and what really matters. Choosing your sacrifice helps you to narrow down what is really important to you and thus make a better choice of lifestyle. Taking risks shows you whether or not you are on the right path, it teaches you the lessons you need to learn to move to the next stage on your journey. Whether it is trying to increase happiness, becoming the best version of yourself, making a dream come true, achieving a goal, it all comes down to taking a chance. Without taking the risk to potentially fail, get hurt, fall, make a mistake, we are not able to grow, we are not able to make progress and we will never know what would be on the other side of fear.

How to overcome your fears and start taking more risk

The one thing that holds us back from taking risks and making sacrifices is fear. We fear the outcome, over which we don’t have control, we fear what might happen to us, we fear our safety, we are simply afraid of anything that could happen in the future. So, the secret to learning to take risks is to learn to manage the fear of the future. And that we do through becoming present. One of the greatest and most committed people I ever studied had the ability to be present, all the time. He would never think about the future, the next step, the next throw. He would keep his focus in the now giving his best in this present moment. There is no point in worrying about the future that we cannot impact after all. We need to become absolutely present and show up in the present moment even though there might be uncertainty and despite the fact that we cannot control the future. This is the real risk we need to take, to choose to life in the present and give up living in the future. It is a protection response from our body to try to predict the future. It’s a way to protect ourselves, but it is pointless when it comes to seeking happiness. So the first step you need to take to take risks is to let go of the future and turn present. Whether that is through meditations, self-talk, affirmations or flow activities. Trust that no matter what will happen in the future you will deal with it then.

How you can stay in control when taking risks

Knowing that ultimately all you ever have is the present moment and the only way in which you can deal with life and impact the future is through the present moment and how you act in it helps you to stay in control. To control the situation in which you take risks has nothing to do with actually controlling the outcome but rather with managing your mind and emotions. Fear and worry is only in your head, but once you learn to not engage with those thoughts that cause the fear or the worry you will be fully in control of your experience of life. You need to trust in your ability to deal with what happens in the present moment at any point in time. And you need to understand that that is enough. Giving your best in the present moment, coping in the present moment and taking action in the present moment is enough to be in control of life even when there is high risk involved. The only treat to your consciousness is the lack of confidence in its ability to deal with the consequences resulting from taking the risk.

How to take small risks every day and create a life with more joy (step out of your comfort zone)

The way in which you can build this confidence in your ability to deal with the consequences and thus make it easier for you to take risks and commit is to practice it every day. Start with small things. Take risks with things where consequences are very small like altering your breakfast, taking the bus to work instead of the car, then once you are comfortable with those and learned that 95% of the time the worst case does not apply anyway and taking the risk wasn’t so bad after all you can move on to the next stage. Take a bigger risk like going on a trip alone, asking someone out, asking for a promotions, taking a leave, giving your kids in day care for a day, take a day of. Obviously everyone needs to find out for herself what small and bigger and very big risks are. That depends much on what we are most afraid of and what causes us the biggest treat of existence. However the exercise works no matter what small or bigger risk you choose to take. Once you are comfortable with the bigger risks and you realized that in fact you are able to deal with anything and nothing really bad will happen after all it is time to take the chance, to take this big leap of faith and move completely into uncertainty. Quitting your job, asking someone to marry you, having a child…

What will help you to make the leap of faith easier, no matter if big or small is to always ask yourself: What is the worst that can happen? You will soon see that this is very unrealistic of happening. So ask yourself: What is more likely to happen? After that ask yourself: What is the best thing that can happen? Now compare the risk you are taking with the benefit that you are gaining. What is more appealing?