To Risk is to Grow

There’s always been something dashing and glamorous about risk-takers. We admire them for their courage and bravado. Secretly, we would love to be like them. But if someone asks us if we think of ourselves as risk-takers, for many of us, the answer would be an emphatic “NO!” In this day and age, that certainly isn’t an unreasonable response. Taking a risk, and failing, sometimes causes a terrible price to be paid. There is another way to look at the subject of risk. Read on.

In one of his many books, Leo Buscaglia wrote that, “To laugh is to risk appearing a fool, to weep is to risk appearing too sentimental, to reach out for another is to risk involvement, and to expose feelings is to risk exposing one’s true self.

“To place your ideas and dreams before the crowd is to risk their loss, to love is to risk not being loved in return. To live is to risk dying, to hope is to risk despair, to try is to risk failure.

“But all risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.

“The person who risks nothing also does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. If we avoid risk, we may avoid suffering and sorrow, but we simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love or live.”

By now, you are probably agreeing with Leo Buscaglia. If, out of our fears, we refuse to risk, we also forfeit our freedom because only a person who risks is truly free. Only a person who risks can grow because all personal growth involves some level of risk.

If you stay focused on the benefits of the risk, instead of putting all your energy into worrying about what could go wrong, and if you consistently affirm and visualize what achievement will look and feel like, it will be much easier for you to take the risks you need to take, in order to grow into that next level of You.