Risking, how does that word make you feel? Risking, taking a chance, maybe putting up something that you value a lot; maybe losing it.
What things could you lose? Your reputation, your money, your position with the person you love, your relationships with your parents, your relationship with your kids.
How do you lose these things? If you say no to your kids, they may not love you. If you stand up to your parents, they might reject you. If you put a lot of money into a business venture, you could lose it. In a love relationship, if you stand up and say how you really feel, you may discover that you’re not loved.
Everything that you care about in your life depends upon risking and the truth is that you’re risking all the time but don’t even realize it. Almost everything you do that can result in getting out of your ego, becoming aligned with your spirit and living your purpose involves a risk. Let’s put it another way, almost anything you do that’s going to get you closer to realizing your intention entails something that may involve a loss.
Risking is important in all parts of life, not only financial but also emotional. When you think of relationships that you care about most, the thing that you risk is rejection for expressing how you really feel but if a relationship you’re in is one in which you cannot express how you feel, how good a relationship is it?
The best relationship is one in which you can simply be yourself, in which you’re welcomed in as the person you are. In a relationship, if you have to give up a part of yourself in order to be there, you have already given up and lost the part of the relationship that you’re fearing risking for.
For example, to keep your relationship alive, you must take risks all the time. You must be willing to say, “Ouch that hurts,” Or “I don’t like that.” Or “This isn’t what I had in mind.” Or “This isn’t what I want to do.” Or “This makes me uncomfortable.” You need to be able to take the risk and state who you are in terms of what you feel.
If you’re looking for people’s approval, you’re also limited by people’s approval. The person who will praise you for something may lead you off the correct path.
The correct path is one where you’re pleasing yourself, where you’re the person who is the judge of the worth, merit and the good feelings that something gives you. You have to ultimately take the risk to live a life where you’re the judge of how good things are that you’re risking for. When you take a risk to please someone else, you risk losing your self-esteem and your path.
Here’s a basic rule to follow in risking; whether you’re in business or dealing with people or raising a family the right risk brings you closer to your spirit and purpose in life.
When you’re on purpose you feel more like yourself where you are doing what you want to do, not what other people tell you to do. Where you recognize that you were given a gift when you came into this world and your job is to discover that gift and develop it. The meaning of your life comes from giving that gift back. Any risk you take should in some way enhance your ability to discover your gift and develop it.
You have to take all the risks necessary to develop your gift so that you can be happy, because being happy is the payoff for a person who has discovered his or her purpose. There is no happiness in just making more money. You may not believe that, because you see your bills and you are aware of the pressures around you but money is not the answer. Once the novelty of the money is gone, you feel a kind of emptiness and despair, because you have to live within you.
Taking a risk requires that you believe that you have something that’s special about you. This is not inflated. This is not a hype rather this is the sense that you were put here for a purpose. Ask yourself, “What is the purpose of my life?” All of your risks should reflect that purpose in some way. They should get you closer to the place where you’re more yourself. They should make it easier for you to be free in expressing your feelings. Being emotionally free in expressing who you are, doing the things you love and being connected with your spirit is the final payoff for taking all the right risks.
