The Courage To Take Risks

Dread is an interesting word. It means to anticipate with apprehension or fear. Some mornings it seems so easy to wake up with a gradual sense of it. All the tasks of the day mount, the challenges, and it seems to be like the grains of sand on one side of a scale. Gradually before you know it the weight is such that the arm of the scale comes crashing down.  A critical mass has occurred and the dread is so dreadful that it seems difficult to go on.

This is the way it goes one drip at a time, one grain of sand that accumulates to more than can be borne. However each of these grains equal a challenge that there is fear in, each is an event that we doubt ourselves in, and in some wish to avoid. This is one of the roots of procrastination. Not just not wanting to do a task, but also the doubt often that we can accomplish it.

Confidence is the antidote to this sort of dread. We do not dread what we feel we can easily accomplish. We do not dread what is difficult when  we find joy and fun in the process of accomplishment. In releasing the fear of failure we find the space to succeed. With compassion for ourselves and our current limits we move to the edge of what we feel capable of. Even going to the edge feels like a risk. By doing what we are capable of, we find we can do more than we dreamed.

Risk taking is essential to positive accomplishment. Confidence is a process of discovery in which we are more capable than we knew. As we meet the challenge of stepping to the edge,  we lose the fear of it. 

It is in this moment we find the courage to step outside of what feels safe, and in that moment we experience true enthusiasm. We dared to risk both success and failure so we found what transcends them both. Authenticity. 

December 26, 2024