I’m sure you’ve all heard that saying "Life is all about taking chances" or "Life is all about taking risks", or some version of this. When we think about taking chances in our lives, our guts may drop, and our first initial thoughts may be scared/hesitant, OR for others, their initial thoughts may be excitement and adrenaline. Think for a second what you feel physically and emotionally, when you think about taking a "risk" I know for me, my emotions and mind initially pull me back, and I tell to myself, "there’s too much to lose".
One thing I know is I would not be where I am today without taking some type of risks. There’s so much I have not only gained, but lost from taking risk that has made me who I am today. Some of us may think we shouldn’t take risk if there’s a loss. However, whether it be big or small, risks are NECESSARY to establish some levels of happiness and success. We can all learn and take something from loss or failure. This allows us to not only be resilient and overcome difficult circumstances, but allows us to develop into stronger individuals and helps keep us moving toward the direction of our goals and future. It also allows us to create happiness. We all need to experience personal challenges, difficult circumstances and situations, and we all need to experience loss to appreciate the good things that come into our lives. If we always had everything go our way, we would tend to take things for granted wouldn’t we? We’d always be happy, we’d always have what we want, and we would never get to experience the emotions of sadness or anger. However, we need to experience anger and sadness. Sadness allows us to express our emotions. Once we can express our emotions, we can begin to process them and then choose the direction of how we want to move forward with whatever challenge or difficult circumstance we may be facing.
Taking risks also involves those uncomfortable feelings of anxiety, nervousness, and stress. When we take a risk, we have no clue what the outcome will be. Will the outcome turn out to be how I wanted it? Will I end up losing everything? Will I get everything I ever wanted and be happy? We NEED to feel uncomfortable. Exhibiting experiences outside of our comfort zone allows us to grow as individuals. This is a gain that we can take from taking a risk. Personal growth allows us to excel, succeed, motivate and encourage others, and helps us reach our goals. I remember vividly beginning an entry level job working with individuals with mental health diagnosis. My first day on the job I was terrified. I had never worked with this population before, but I knew if I wanted to have a successful future, I had to put myself in jobs and uncomfortable situations to gain experience.
I had no clue what skills I needed or how I was going to react to the overall job. My first initial thoughts were what if this doesn’t work out? How will I pay my rent? How will I pay bills? My other thoughts included, I have no experience, how could I be good at this? It turns out, from taking this risk and placing myself in a job that I felt so uncomfortable to do because I was a recent graduate from college…. Turned out to be the BEST employment experience. Not only did I learn so much, but I developed skills I never knew I had. I was able to change and impact individuals lives. Now don’t get me wrong, I experienced some loss with this job as well. I was traveling and using my own personal car Monday-Friday. I was out of the office 75% of the day traveling and put 50,000 miles on my car in 1st year. I will never get back the wear and tear on my car, but I have taken so much more from this career experience that has allowed me to appreciate taking risk at some points in my life.
Another experience I remember vividly where I took a risk that involved not only gains, but loses, was when I decided to run my first half marathon. I had never ran more than 3 miles in my life, and one day my friend told me I should do it with her. I thought to myself you must be kidding 13 miles is too much! Turns out I decided to do it. The thought of accomplishing 13 miles was intriguing to me, but I questioned to myself if I could really do it. Also, the cost to run the race was over $50.00. I thought to myself, what if I do terrible? There is 50 dollars down the drain. Turns out I set my mind to finishing the race, and spent 3 months training hard. I had challenging days of training where I did not feel like running at all and the physical exhaustion at times took a tool on my mind and body, but I also had great days of training where I felt like I was on top of the world. I thought to myself, finishing this race may be possible. Through this experience I learned how to physically challenge myself, which led to self- determination. Turns out on race day, I finished my first half marathon in approximately 2 hours and 5 min. I felt accomplished and proud. I knew when I first decided to run the half, there was a chance that I may not finish. However, I did not let those thoughts interfere with my drive. I am now running my fourth half marathon, and realize if I did not take that risk, I would not be where I am physically now. My last half marathon was in 2015 where my final time was 1:39:23.
Overall, we gain and experience loss when we take risk. However it is necessary. It allows us to grow and develop as individuals. It allows us to motivate and encourage others. But most importantly it allows us to reach our dreams and goals. We cannot reach our dreams without moving forward, and we cannot appreciate happiness without taking risk.
-Michelle
