Are you a risk taker?

by Barb Doyle, Sc.

Earl Nightingale stated that risk-taking is something that successful people do. He can prove with mathematical certainty that taking risks is the safest way to go. Only about two percent of all people are risk-takers. The majority of people are risk avoiders. So, with 98% of the people on the sidelines, risk-takers stand a mathematically good chance of coming up on the winning end and profiting enormously. Meanwhile, those who play it safe are odds-on favorites for staying exactly where they are or sliding backwards. You see what most people don't realize is that everything carries a risk. No one has regrets over what they do. They have regrets over what they don't do in life. There is far less pain in sacrifice than there is in having regrets.

There are two doors that as we go through life we choose between. One door is security and the other door is freedom. Most people will choose the door that says security but in doing so they don't realize that they are forfeiting both security and freedom.

There is a tendency in the goal setting process to continue to make the same goal over and over even if what we have been doing to achieve that goal has not worked for us in the past. By doing this we are simply continuing down the same road. We have this 'no pain, no gain' idea that says that if we just try harder at what's not working that it will eventually work! You've maybe felt this and yet, we still tend to go right ahead and try harder anyway at what's not working.

This is what will eventually exhaust you. You can achieve your goals if they are true desires and not just wishes. However, you may need to be open-minded enough to take a detour. Being open-minded definitely pays!