Proceed with caution. Limit your exposure. Contain your risk.
Playing it safe is just good sense. You’ve achieved a level of success. You’re comfortable and secure in both your business and personal life. Being bold and daring is for the young and yet-to-be-prosperous. At this point in your life, there’s nothing wrong with maintaining the status quo.
Or is there? You can reach a point where status quo becomes stagnation.
It’s so easy to let our lives become routine and automatic. We know what works. We know how to make things run smoothly.
One of my favorite verses is by Guillaume Apollinaire:
Come to the edge, he said
They said: We are afraid
Come to the edge, he said
They came
He pushed them and they flew
All of us occasionally need the push of which Apollinaire spoke in order to change, to grow, to experience the joy of flight.
It’s important not to see success and happiness as a prize to be snatched. When we catch it, we hanker down and hold on
tightly.
Successful living is a process, not a finished product. It’s growing, failing, learning, suffering, experiencing.
Life is change. Sometimes, the changes most important to our growth require taking the greatest risks. They necessitate moving out of our comfortable patterns and making a large leap.
As William Lloyd George said, “Don’t be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated; you can’t cross a chasm in two small steps.”
Of course, not all of our growth changes need to be dramatic and life altering. Sometimes, all that’s required is to change how we look at something – such as eliminating a prejudice or trying to take a more creative approach to a problem. Maybe it’s only breaking a habit that’s become detrimental to our well-being. Or taking up a new hobby or sport we find enjoyable or relaxing.
No matter how large or small the ledge, we need to continually push ourselves over to truly grow and better ourselves.
We must avoid becoming paralyzed by “comfortable.” The joy of expanding ourselves, of taking flight, far outweighs the risks.
Denise Lloyd,
Publisher
