You Aren’t Going To Grow Unless You Take Risks

You aren’t going to grow unless you step outside of your comfort zone. You have to give up the fear of embarrassment, because all of the greatest things in life run the risk of getting awkward. You’re rarely going to succeed on your first attempt.

You have to retrain your brain to stop thinking failure is the end of the road because failure is actually a stepping stone toward success. When you make a mistake in a relationship or your career or while learning how to ice skate, it teaches you how to be better prepared the next time.

You aren’t going to grow unless you take risks — which means you need to stop making comparisons between yourself and the people around you. Yes, the person next to you might be better than you at a certain skill, but they might have been practicing since they were a small child while you’ve only started today.

Even if you’ve been on the same path for the same amount of years, time moves differently for everyone. You can’t call yourself a failure whenever someone else succeeds. There’s enough room for you to succeed too. You should look at them as inspiration, as motivation, not as competition.

You aren’t going to grow unless you stop playing it safe and take a risk. You might be telling yourself you’re too comfortable right now to risk losing everything, but if you’ve even been considering taking a risk, then are you really that comfortable? Don’t you feel like something is missing? Don’t you feel like you could be doing something more? Don’t you wonder whether you could be happier?

If you truly are comfortable, then sit back and enjoy yourself. Don’t take a single moment for granted. Appreciate everything around you. But if you aren’t as comfortable as you have been convincing yourself, you might want to take a risk. You might want to take a chance on yourself.

It’s scary to take the first step toward following your dreams or asking out your dream date or embarking on a new adventure, but the thing about risks is they pay off in the end.

If you allow your fear to stop you from pursuing what would make you happiest, you’re going to have regrets. You’re going to form resentments. Worst of all, you’re always going to wonder what could have happened. You’re going to wonder whether you made a mistake by stewing in your comfort zone.

But when you take risks, you get rid of that uncertainty. Even if things don’t work out the way you hoped, at least you have an answer. At least you know you didn’t sit around playing it safe while the world passed you by.

As tempting as it is to say no to things that scare you, you aren’t going to grow unless you take the right risks. You aren’t going to reach your full potential unless you start to believe in yourself, trust yourself, and take a chance on yourself.