Risk Taking and Embracing the Unknown

We all have routines, places and people that make us comfortable.  There’s definitely something to be said for that.  Then there is also something to be said for new, unusual, even unsettling.

Sameness creates comfort. Difference creates opportunity. 

The path to peace, happiness and harmony often takes you through the territory of unease, disappointment and discord.

Your greatest breakthroughs rarely come to you while you’re in your comfort zone.  They usually appear when you’re decidedly uncomfortable.  Challenged.  Even pained.

If it weren’t for broken hearts, we’d never get to hear those amazing breakup songs from Alanis Morissette.  If it weren’t for massive personal failures, we’d never get to read those inspiring biographies about people like Lincoln, Edison, and Iacocca.  If it weren’t for mold, we’d never have discovered penicillin.

But none of us really like challenges, setbacks, and obstacles in our path.  So we’re not that likely to seek them out.  And it’s not like we intentionally want to encounter resistance.  So how do we get the breakthroughs?

You have to take chances.  Attack projects that aren’t guaranteed to fail, but also aren’t guaranteed to succeed.  As one of my favorite authors likes to say, Risky Is the New Safe.  Take measured risks, just outside the boundaries of your comfort zone.   Because that’s where the breakthroughs live

• RG