Taking Risk

I want to talk about taking risk and what that looks like in my life.  But first I want to tell you a story.

Some of you may know that I have pink hair.  I love doing fun things with my hair.  It's only hair; it will grow back.  It's been long, short, red, brown, blond, purple and now pink.  I love it.  But I don't do it myself.  I would be to afraid that I would mess it up, even though I know it grows back.  So I pay someone to do it for me.  It works for me.

But now that my hair is pink, I want it to be pink all the time.  If you've ever had brightly colored hair you know that it doesn't last.  The bright colors fade.  Pink fades to rose gold to dishwater.  I love the pink.  I love the rose gold.  I don't like the dishwater as much.

So what are my options?  I can wait a few weeks until my next appointment.  I can get my hair colored more often.  Or I can take matters into my own hands and pump up the color myself.

Normally option one is the way I go.  I wait until it can be handled properly.  My hair is important to me so it needs to be done right.

But what about option three?  Could I do it?  I've seen it done enough.  Why not?  Ok, I'll do it.

So I buy the color.  I bring it home and put it on the bathroom counter.  It sits there.  And sits.  And sits some more.  The risk is ok in theory but then reality sets in and so does the fear.  Fear keeps me from taking risk, even if it's something that I really wanted to do.  Fear stops me, even on something so simple as hair (that I know will grow back).

It took two weeks to work up the courage.  It was only two weeks until my appointment so I wouldn't have to wait to get it fixed.  I mixed the color.  I added conditioner so it wouldn't be permanent.  I put on some gloves and went for it.  And it worked.

So fast forward to when my next color starts to fade.  I look in the mirror once, twice and say it's time.  There was no hesitation.  The risk I had taken previously worked out.  I did it once and now I know I can do it again.  So I did.

This story illustrates exactly how risk impacts me in my daily life.  I have dreams.  I want to do things, big things.  I want to follow where they will lead me.  But fear says, "No.  You cannot do this.  It might not work.  You may fail."  If I listen to the fear, the may and might turns into "you will".  The "you will fail" drowns out the other voices and it paralyzes me.  It keeps me where I am.

Fear stops me from taking risk.  But desire, dreams and vision whisper at me to keep going.  I need to make room to allow the whispers to keep going and get louder.  If I let a maybe in then the possibility of "you may fail" turns into "you may succeed".  The "may succeed" is enough to let me try.

I started a business last year with the idea that "it just might work".  So I tried and I gave it my all (or as close as I could get).  And I failed.  But I didn't fail because I was a failure.  I failed because it wasn't for me.  It wasn't what I should have been doing.  But I tried, I learned, I created new avenues for myself and I rekindled a long dormant idea.

The success I found in failure gave me the courage to try again, to try something new.  It gave me the ability to just do it.  The fear is still there but I invite it along instead of letting it stop me and staying where I am.

What does taking risk look like for you?  Do you let fear stop you?  Or do you take the steps and do the work anyway.