How To Know Whether The Next Risk Is Worth Taking

Something changes when we stop looking at risks individually and we start considering them dots that explain our chose way of life.

Photo by Mark Asthoff

There is risk in everything we do. Taking a risk is exposing ourselves to danger, but it isn’t as though we can choose when to take risks, when to expose ourselves to danger, or when to stay safe. We can do our best to reduce risk, but ultimately it isn’t only up to us. We are not alone, we are never all alone, and even if we were, nature would still have something to say.

So there is risk in everything we do. We can, of course, increase or decrease the risks we take. And it is here that conflict begins. Conflict that is both internal and external.

Internally, we may struggle with what decision to make, how much risk to take or whether to take any unnecessary risk at all.

Externally, we have the conventional community watching our every move and advising us to be careful, warning us not to be reckless and lecturing us on how a proper person pursues their goals.

Any risk taker, however nonchalant and overconfident they may seem now, has been through those conflicts. They overcame themselves, their fears and their doubts, and they acted…