Taking Risks

“Life is short.“
It’s tossed around so often that it loses weight — like background noise. Until one day, it isn’t noise anymore. It’s a roaring truth. The “C” word has a way of bringing everything into brutal focus. For someone like me who is a calculated planner, it injected a level of uncertainty that put my brain on overdrive. I all of a sudden was not in control. If you know me, everything I do comes with a planning document, spreadsheets, analysis, and a slew of other control freak artifacts.

We tend to cling to routines, play it safe, and always talk about “someday”. We fear failure, so we risk regret. Someday suddenly is a luxury and a blessing. I have spent decades of my life making decisions for others, taking the paths people would find agreeable. I am a self-professed people pleaser to the nth degree.

So, this week, of course after much deliberation, I nudged myself to make a very big move in my life. And of course, it comes with all the risk, but I came to the conclusion that the jump is worth the potential reward. I was proud of myself for stopping the internal dialogue that was telling me I was nuts. I realized those words were the perceived reactions I anticipated from everyone around me, not actual truths. When the world shakes beneath your feet, maybe that’s when it’s time to leap.

If you have something you’ve been deliberating on, remember many of these decisions are not necessarily a one-way door decision. If it doesn’t work out, there is always another path on the other side of it. Don’t wait till you are faced with something like this to start living a bit boldly!

Stay tuned! But first, we beat “C”!