Most everything in live worth having requires at least a little risk. Some things are easier to lead up to than others and this excuse is about the big things that require a massive leap of faith. What if you had lived in Ohio your entire life but always dreamed of living in Paris?  You could mitigate the risk by taking French lessons and saving up and taking a vacation there but to truly realize the dream at some point you have to put an ocean between everything familiar and what you think you want.

The goal certainly doesn’t have to be Paris, it could be starting a business or learning to rock climb.  The excuse comes in when we stop ourselves from going after it. Absolutely look for the things that can be done to remove some risk, physical, financial or emotional but then you have to ask yourself what the risk is of not doing it.  What do you stand to lose? Dreams count.

I know I’ve used this excuse when I wanted something that seemed out of reach and nobody in my immediate circle wanted it for themselves or knew anything about it.  That tends to heighten the perceived risk because it feels like there’s no net.  The truth is there really never is a net because everyone’s experience is different.  That doesn’t mean you head off to the mountains without the appropriate safety gear! It just means that we all perceive risk differently and have different goals attached to overcoming it.

Next week: ‘My perception is skewed and I don’t trust my own judgment’

Technorati Tags: common excuses, taking risks

This past week’s excuse is one that I’m more guilty of than most, which is why it’s so awkwardly worded.  I once got stuck getting on an escalator in London (they move faster over there!) with a suitcase so that I was hopping on the escalator with one foot and the other was still on the platform.  I couldn’t get any leverage over my balance to either get both feet on or off the escalator.  A passing gallant gentleman had to rescue me by pulling me back.  I find myself doing that metaphorically in risky projects; compromising on how many or what risks I take so that I end up making an effort but not any progress.

I have seen it in others who have convinced themselves that they have to double their salary with their after work endeavors before they can justify leaving their day job. Most everyone that has made that leap had to go downhill on the income before they could head up the other hill.  The problem is nobody can say when the time is right for you, and most of us can’t see it for ourselves either.

I think the only preventative measure for this kind of excusing behavior is just to be aware of it.  Ask yourself if you are holding back so that it will be safe to turn back or if you are being taking enough smart risks.  Where are you with that big goal? If you can turn back to life exactly as you left it before you started than you probably haven’t given it enough of yourself.  Failure does happen as do unmet expectations but if you’ve really pursued the goal with everything you have these tend to manifest as something new and different in your life, not a return to something even more disappointing.

Next week: ‘I don’t have any experience’

Technorati Tags: common excuses, no excuses, taking risks

As excuses go, this one is pretty weak (no pun intended) and I think is most often said internally.  Externally, it’s just whining – like kids saying they just can’t get the hang of mowing the lawn.  But when we tell ourselves that we don’t have what it takes either in physical or mental fortitude, there’s a part of us that really means it and that doubt is crippling. While I have no scientific evidence to quote I think women fall victim to doubting their own strength far more than men – testosterone has been shown to be linked to confidence in risk taking.

When it comes to physical strength, we are not all created equal and most of us are not only not ready to tackle Everest but have no real desire to do so which means there’s little incentive to start training for it.  But what about some other goal? I’ve always thought it would be cool to hike the Olympic National Park from the North to West boundaries – a 3-5 day trip through the back country of interlocking deer trails.  There are a number of reasons why I haven’t made any progress towards this and one of them is I don’t think I could physically pull off walking that far with a full pack. But at the same time that’s not an impossible level of fitness, even for me:-) I’ve just let the excuse stop me before I even start solving the other problems like who else would be willing to go along.

Most of us can’t escape testing our mental strength at some point – accidents and disasters happen without warning and most of us discover that we had more in reserve than we ever thought possible.  And yet still, when it comes to something like risking your life savings to start a business, we balk.  Caution and a good business plan are certainly called for, but if what is stopping you is the thought that you aren’t strong enough to handle it, or deal with the potential failure, that’s a problem.  If you make a list of everything that you have been strong enough to handle, I’m guessing the excuse just won’t measure up.

Next week: ‘I’ll compromise because I’m not confident enough to fully commit’

Technorati Tags: common excuses, self-doubt, taking risks

I think my brain is starting to hurt from all the new things I’ve taken in this last week. On the plus side I finally got my merchant application in so that I’ll be able to process credit and debit cards at shows – it will be a miracle if it goes smoothly because neither I nor the bank representative knew how to fill out the form; it was a myriad of new vocabulary that wasn’t explained anywhere. Luckily, I’m fairly certain they want my business so it should come out all right in the end.  Also in preparation for the upcoming craft show I was dropping things off in parts of the city I’ve never been to before and which Google maps was also unfamiliar with (as in the directions were wrong!) Now that that’s done, I can concentrate on actually making the jewelry to sell which is starting to get urgent.

My education has also included reading case files and meeting people for my volunteer case which is good to get started but has left me with a few nightmares, not to mention pondering the state of our society.  I try to stay focused on there being far more people that try to stop the abuse than that actually commit the abuse.  I’m glad there are people that want to be in law enforcement, but for me personally, reading their reports is hard enough – things can get a bit graphic.

To counteract the bad taste from dealing with that stuff, I went and found a recipe for pumpkin pancakes which make for a truly amazing comfort dinner when paired with maple syrup, home-made cranberry sauce and a glass of red wine:-)

And lastly with some trepidation, I decided to take a risk and see if a website profiling the ’soulmate’ predicted for my by a psychic would make any difference at all to my love life, the one area that I’ve been neglecting for some pretty common excuses.  I can’t decide if I’m more nervous that nothing will happen or that something will. A lot of ‘what if’s’ have floated through my mind in the last week on this one, but I’m sticking with the premise than when you don’t know where to start, doing the first thing to come to mind that sticks there is a the right place.  That doesn’t mean that I’m not still too worried about what people will think;-) Past time to start letting that kind of mentality go.  You can check it out at http://insearchofedmondsguy.com

Technorati Tags: achieving dreams, learning new things, Personal Growth, solopreneur, taking risks, the way to happiness

Not that long ago I got randomly selected to be on a survey panel from my gas company. So every now and then I answer some online questions and get Amazon points in return.  For the most part they are pretty innocuous questions about appliances and light bulbs but one time it was to preview energy conservation service announcements.  I got seriously irked. Particularly at the one that said “everyone should turn down their thermostats to 70 degrees”  as mine was set to 60!  But it did get me to thinking that perhaps those of us that are conservative in whatever behavior hear these messages and feel that we must dial it back even more.  Whether it’s ‘be careful what personal information you put on the Internet’ or ‘everyone should save more’ it would be a good idea to figure out the range of ‘everyone’ before making changes to what you already do.

You should be careful on the Internet, but there’s a big difference between posting your social security number and letting people know that you are a die-hard fan of Big Bird (isn’t everyone?)  Yes, that last could be slightly embarrassing in certain circles, but if you really are a die-hard fan, don’t you owe to yourself to be all that you are?  If you’re holding back because of the potential damage to your personal brand, what about the potential gain?  What if you become the go-to person for Big Bird fans around the world and get interviewed on Oprah, thus sending everyone to your blog so that you become the number one site on the web? It’s definitely not going to happen to the person that is worried about what people might think – either now or in 30 years.

Cautionary advice has its place, but not if you are so far over on the scale that you really need to be taking more risks.

Technorati Tags: being yourself, taking risks