The Power of Embracing Risk To Your Advantage

Momentum is key. And the more you have, the more you want to make sure you have your i’s dotted and your t’s crossed. You don’t sit there every day and contemplate whether or not something is worth doing, you just keep doing it. You need to be good at embracing risk to take that action.

This new opportunity may not work out. I’m unsure of what will happen. What if I lose? How will it all come together?

These are all fears that paralyze most people and keep them from taking the appropriate risks in their lives. And the problem is, risk is a necessary function of living your life and maximizing your utmost potential. The same especially holds true for business.

In fact, embracing risk has a direct correlation with having faith. You don’t know the outcome, but you can control your own actions, behavior and character to get to the desired outcome of your choice.

The reason being, is that when you have momentum for something you’re doing from a place of passion and hard work, instead of unforeseen obstacles being a complete barrier, they will seem like minor speed bumps. You can pivot faster because you’re not paralyzed from the unknown, but “informed”. You know what works and what doesn’t work so you can continue making moves.

Hence, the inverse, or opposite, of risk, is opportunity.

If you’re going to lead a life of opportunity, it’s important that we dissect the meaning of it, what are true risks and how do we create an internal “risk insurance” policy.

Let’s Start With Opportunity . . .

Opportunity: (/op-er-too-ni-tee/)

1. an appropriate or favorable time or occasion.
2. a situation or condition favorable for attainment of a goal.
3. a good position, chance, or prospect, as for advancement or success.

Opportunities exist everywhere depending on our own perception. If we operate from a place of fear, then we tend to see only a risk with an unfavorable outcome.

If we operate from a position of gratitude and abundance (upcoming article), then we see opportunity in things.

For example: Let’s say a person wants to go out and get their dream job.

Person A operates from a fear and lack-based perspective. They suddenly lose their current job and immediately scramble to find an equal position to “survive”.

Person B operates from a gratitude and abundance-based perspective. After they lose their job, they recognize that they asked the universe for their dream job. Hence, this “loss” of their current job is an opportunity to go after what they really want to do. They recognized that they lost their job to because the universe wants to be able to provide them with what they really want.

Perspective: Sometimes, it takes losing something to pull us out of a situation that no longer belongs to us in order to move us towards what is.

Now Let’s Talk About Embracing Risk . . .

The 2 key areas of risk are:

1. Human
2. Tangible (non-human)

. . . and it’s important to understand the differences between the two.

“Human” risks, are essentially the majority of the variables we deal with everyday. That is, we can control what we can control, and we can control a heck of a lot more than we give ourselves credit for.

Hence, we can take care of all of our day-to-day things that keep us up to date, maintained and optimized. If you don’t like the outcomes you’re experiencing in life, you can mitigate those more than you think, simply by creating new habits and establishing an internal “risk insurance” policy (as discussed below).

“Tangible” risks are something you physically have at the end of the day. You do “X” to get “Y” and that can be more easily measured.

However, we live in a world where most risk is “human” factored. Because a majority of the world is operating off of their own vices (thoughts, feelings, energy, ideas and more), there are a lot of unforeseen circumstances we cannot account for. This means, it’s vital we take into account our own behavior and create, what I like to call, an internal “Risk Insurance” Policy.

Creating an Internal Risk Insurance Policy

Let’s start by defining what a policy is. It’s basically something you put in place to mitigate or offset the risk. Examples include, health insurance, life insurance, car insurance, business insurance, renters insurance and more.

Well, just like the aforementioned policies, you also need to instill certain habits to offset risks in your life as well. As individuals, we must do certain things daily that are preventative or upkeep maintenance. This is a form of internal insurance. We brush our teeth, we prevent cavities. We tune our car and maintain its engine, we have less wear and tear.

When you take care of what you know what you have control over, you inherently diminish the risk. Now, if something happens, it happens. Of course, this is why you have insurance, just in case.

However, there’s something very key in the above. Keeping good habits will keep you in a good psychological state. Being in a good physiological state will allow you to flow. If you don’t maintain good habits and a good physiological state, obstacles that arise could be enough to disrupt and create a domino effect in your life. This can take you out of flow and away from opportunities because suddenly you have to take care of something that you wouldn’t have had to otherwise take care of had you practiced good habits.

In essence, if you do not take care of things immediately in your life that allow you to maintain flow, 30% of your time will be spent being reactive instead of being proactive. And this is where you can see that risk goes up and the true cost of opportunity.

Here are 4 things you can do to create your own internal “risk insurance” policy and instill good daily habits for life and for business:

Create a policy for your life:

1. • What are your values?
   • What do you need to do on a daily basis to take care of your life’s goals?
   • Do you have a morning routine? (i.e. Gratitude, Working Out, etc.)
   • What kinds of healthy habits can you implement?

Create a policy for your business:

1. • Look at the opportunities that you have out there to take advantage of. To best take advantage of these opportunities, you have to mitigate as many risks that would undermine the overall success as much as possible. There’s no insurance policy that you can buy that will guarantee, but there are other types of policies that will protect you from things that go awry.
   • Create a solid “methods of operation”.
   • Know your values.
   • Make rules that you can adopt.
   • Know your “why” so you keep going and stay on your brand or company’s mission.

Ask yourself if you can afford not to create certain policies:

1. • What’s at stake if you don’t acquire policies for your life and business?
   • Do you have a backup system for handling problems you could have avoided?

What goals are you trying to achieve and what are some things you are unaware of in achieving those goals?

1. • This will help you handle what can potentially happen, or at least prepare you ahead of time in thinking about what’s at stake.
   • Analyze and determine the outcome you want and create your policies around that to mitigate risks that could harm those.

If you don’t create policies for yourself, all you will see are risks. This is the equivalent of putting up barriers and, in turn, you can’t take action. One by one, when you look at the risk and the cost, all of a sudden, the risk is offset by you dealing with it ahead of time. It’s alleviated. You now have a sense of confidence that this will all work out, and guess what, it usually does.

As humans, we’re more motivated by discomfort than opportunity. Don’t wait for discomfort. Seize opportunity. Make policies and after about 90 days, watch them become great habits.

Are you embracing risk to your advantage? As always, feel free to comment and share your experiences and thoughts below.

All my best,