Taking a chance is worth it...
Taking a chance is worth it...
...because the alternative is going to stress you out anyway, so, might as well, right!
For the majority of my life, I would have poo-poo’ed this taking a chance sentiment and written it off as nonsense that would get me in trouble.
The idea of stretching outside my comfort zone to achieve big goals would be a risk that I was not willing to take.
I was more than content with playing it safe and living through the momentum of my life.
I felt that I had a certain, fixed set of skills and that afforded me a certain place in life - and that I should be happy with that.
But, over the past year, as I involved myself with personal development, this quote by Amanda Steinberg now resonates with me on all levels.
While taking time to reflect on my life, I realized that by playing small, I was creating a ton of stress for myself by taking what was handed to me and not pursuing my dreams and living a flourishing life.
Although this route, at first glance, appeared the safe, easy, and more importantly, logical way to go, a large amount of regret and resentment towards my life and career decisions were the byproduct.
By playing small, I was hyper-stressed and irritable at the drop of a hat.
I also had this sense of deep unfulfillment that I always ignored and never dared to explore.
As a result, I started to realize that I was leaving a lot of value that I could share with others to help them with their own struggles and pain on the table.
So, what’s the point of living in this way, exactly?
In order to warm up to the challenges of moving past my limiting beliefs about my abilities in order to set bigger goals and all the work involved with meeting them, I discovered that it is primarily contingent upon adjusting my overall mindset and realizing that my skills aren’t fixed - I can broaden and build on them and leverage them to do bigger and better things.
Specifically, I adopted what Carol Dweck refers to as a growth mindset.
“With a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.”
With a growth mindset, that allows me the opportunity to acknowledge and commit to moving past the questions I have about my abilities and the momentum crippling “what if’s” with positive and reinforcing self-talk and go after what I really want in life.
By doing, you develop a thicker skin and resiliency that allows you to forge ahead when things get a little bumpy.
By doing so, this affords you the chance to show up in the world exactly the way you want, :)
What is your relationship to risk? Are you playing big or small?
How would you define your current mindset?
Please share your story in the comment section.
PS - For those of you who aren’t in the know, I mail out these blogs 3x a week, and lemme tell you, they’re a real party, so, if you’d like to get in on this, sign up for it here and I’ll throw in a free gift for you...because I care, :)