Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Fear is the name of the game. All clichés that have stuck around for hundreds of years. Do you have to take risks to gain rewards?
Yes, I think. It’s a risk to fall in love, it’s a risk to have a family. Are the rewards worth it? Sometimes, definitely if you work at it, but every time you work at a relationship, there are risks of a broken heart, the relationship will end, or worse. Yet everyday there are people taking the leap at love.
I grew up on a farm in a family I came to realize was very conservative. Why then is farming one of the highest risk careers around? How can a person be conservative and yet take a risk with the commodities market that is largely out of their hands, or heaven forbid the unpredictability of weather? Will there be enough rain, will there be to little? Will disease stay away or decimate crops and livestock?
Looking at the facts, farmers are big risk takers who disguise themselves as conservative. They plant the crops despite the knowledge if they will reap the rewards. They raise the livestock despite knowing if there will be a market for their product. Farmers are the most forward thinking humanity around. Each of them could have been engineers dreaming up new and better ways to make a widget.
I live on a sailboat, traveling the Atlantic and Caribbean waters. Life is never certain, yet, we continue on. Some would say we are high risk. I’d say we are conservative since we have knowledge and contingency plans.
Life in general is uncertain and I’d argue that even stepping out your front door is a risk. I guess what I’m saying is we live life with a certain amount of unknown and once we realize we can manage the unknowns and reap the rewards, we may step a bit higher and reach for more rewarding goals.
The key to risk is knowing what you can control and how to manage what you can’t.
If you chose a challenge with uncertain outcomes, you must also conquer fear. Fear is an ugly animal that can paralyze us in our tracks. It’s the self doubt and fight or flight syndrome that keeps us safe, but unchecked it can keep us in complacency and stuck.
Is there something you’ve always dreamed of doing, but were afraid of the risks? Have you stepped off the diving board, but don’t know where you’ll land? Is fear holding you in place?
Collect the facts, know what the worst thing that can happen is and take the leap. Failure is not the end, it’s really only the beginning. How many times did Edison fail at making a light bulb? Yet, here we are with light in the midst of darkness.
The rewards are worth the risk.
i’ve stepped off the diving board….in finally deciding to write. it’s deep waters and treacherous, and God knows if I’ll make it, but I’m trying!
Carrie, it’s the trying that’s the most important and I commend us all for trying and succeeding, because if you don’t try, you’ll never succeed.
So true Nancy – life is one big fat risk and giant heap of unknown. I think that’s what makes it so interesting. I love how you say “what the worse that can happen?” Even in the case of “negative” outcomes, sometimes they bear the most fruit. It’s all a matter of perspective, resilience, and perserverance. Facing our fears and taking giant steps into the unknown…it’s hard but if we remember that we do it every single day when we get out of bed and embard into the world, I think it becomes less daunting.
Here’s leaping off the diving board every single day!
Natalie, I so agree. I’m not advocating leap before you look, but don’t let fear stand in front of taking the dive. Go for it!
Risk nothing, reap nothing. You are so right, Nancy. As writers we know all about this, don’t we? I’m so looking forward to hearing where you set anchor next. I’m full of admiration at the risks you and your family take every day.
Patricia, it’s not so much the risks as the rewards that guide us. There’s so much to see and do and on a boat you get to look at so many things without the constraints of the marketing personnel at resorts. Don’t get me wrong resorts offer some pretty fine vantage points, it’s just not what we’re looking for.
Great post, Nancy! One of the things I tell my kids is to always take risks. They don’t have to be huge ones, but don’t play it safe. Safe sailing to you and keep on taking those risks, because we your readers love reaping the rewards.
Tameri, that’s great advice! When you take small risks they make the opportunties for larger risks bearable.
What a great post, Nancy. At this time I am a writer and farmer and sailor– although I haven’t sailed for a while. Farming and sailing are for conservatives in that they require planning to lessen the risk of failure. It does take a brave soul to venture out to sea or invest large chunks of time and money by planting a crop and praying everything comes together. These two things also take faith in the unknown– faith in a higher being to see you through and acceptance in that faith and your own hard work. Preparation = fulfillment.
If one ventures into either of these fields without a strong heart, knowledge and faith one is destined to fail
Dannie, Your words say it all “without a strong heart, knowledge and faith one is destined to fail.” Beautiful and so right.