If You Don’t Dare, You Don’t Know

We often find ourselves wanting to be more daring in our life, but not knowing where or how to start. Or, we simply fear that being daring will cause us pain or heartbreak. These are valid fears, but how will you ever know, if you don’t dare to DO?

Fear will rule you if you allow it to do so. And despite what you may think, there is no easy way around fear. You can’t go around it, above it, below it... you can only go through it. That is, if you want to do something you fear, the only way to not fear it any longer is to... you guessed it... just do it.

Isn’t it better to give it a try and fail, rather than never to know if it could have been achieved? Failure is simply learning how things won’t work. Once you know how they won’t work, you can try again keeping that knowledge in mind, and find ways that it will work! But you’ll never know if you never try.

Perseverance goes hand in hand with being daring. Not all of your daring tries will end up positive. Some will end negatively or at least in ways you didn’t expect. That’s okay. We can never predict the future with any accuracy, so you learn from what you’ve done, and you simply try again. The less we take these failures personally, the more we’re able to see them for what they are - enormous learning experiences!

Have faith that whatever you want to dare to do, you will be successful with. It may take hard work, time, experience, and failure, but if you believe you are capable, there’s nothing you can’t accomplish. Believing in yourself is the first part, and it’s something that doesn’t come easily to lots of people. As you begin to achieve smaller goals, you’ll gain confidence, and that confidence will build momentum. Once you have momentum, you’ll be unstoppable in your pursuit of whatever daring goal you’ve set for yourself.

Don’t listen to people who tell you that you’ll never get there. They are only afraid of their own failures, and when they see you succeeding, it challenges their own comfort level. Never let anyone else tell you how you should live your life or what things you should or shouldn’t do. It’s up to you to make things happen in your life, and by being a bit more daring, you can do it!

What is it that ties every day of living together? What is it that every normal day shares? What is the one thing in life that is predictable and unchanging? The answer to each of these questions is risk.

What Is Risk?

• Linguistically, a risk is defined as the chance of loss or peril
• It is also defined as someone or something that creates or suggests a peril
•  A risk is not simply loss or peril, it is the chance that the loss or peril involved in the activity in question will not occur

Why Do We Take Risks?

• The short answer is that we are hardwired to take risks in order to achieve certain rewards
• When faced with several unappealing options, all of which carry a certain amount of risk, we will choose the option that offers the best ratio of risk to reward
• It is better to accept the risk that something bad would eventually happen and reap the reward of that behavior, rather than forego the reward in an attempt to forestall the inevitable

Why Taking Risks is Important

• Unforeseen opportunities
• Building confidence
• Risks promote growth
• Risk is the hunter
• Risk creates change
• Risk promotes creativity
• Risk raises the bar
• Dreams are not always safe

Boldness Paying Off

• JK Rowling
• Bill Gates
• Sylvester Stallone
• Elon Musk

How Can I Be More Daring?

• Embrace the possibility of failure
• Stand up for what you believe in
• Travel widely and suddenly
• Take on a physical challenge
• Compete for something really big