30 Key Issues To Risk -- Do's and Don'ts
1. Don't be afraid to ask questions. You need to know as much as possible about your own life. You don't need to take an unnecessary risk because you fear asking questions. Remember, a dumb mistake is much worse than asking a dumb question.
2. Set goals. You need a very clear, explicit, measurable, attainable goal so that you can tell how much you have won or lost. You need to know when to take profits or cut losses.
3. Consider possible losses If you cannot estimate a possible loss, then you don't really comprehend the risk. Don't overly complicate things by being too confused.
4. Don't procrastinate. More good things are lost by procrastination than by risking. If the timing is correct and if the risk seems valuable, act quickly and decisively. After you have considered possibly negative factors, work hard on the factor(s) that you can change.
5. Confront problems. Don't imitate an ostrich and hide your head in the sand. Your chances will improve if you ready yourself for the problem before it sabotages you.
6. Accept your fears. Playing games with yourself could be fatal. Your fears could be your alarm bells. If you ignore them at this time, the risk may still be too big for you.
7. Don't expect miracles. Cleanliness may be next to Godliness, but realism is even closer. Be your own lifesaver and make your own best efforts because that's all you really have.
8. Bravery is for winners. Since no one is 100% or 1,000% successful, don't expect it. Your self-esteem would be lowered unnecessarily. Winning a small battle is better than losing a bigger war. So be brave and do it.
9. Invest emotion wisely. Every emotion should be experienced and resolved directly, not indirectly through an emotional risk. If you are feeling depressed. guilty, angry, or hurt, don't resolve them through a risky act like driving too fast on road conditions. The easiest way to ruin your risks is by acting out feeling on them.
10. Don't exceed your limits. Only you really know your own limits. There no really totally secure risks: that is contradiction in terms. Rather, the only risk is in taking too many precautions. So, try to outline the circumstances under which you would take reasonable risk.
11. Call "time out" for miscues. Once you have started a risky venture, you could still goof. Just call time out, regroup your forces, and try to make any needed adjustments. Caution is changing horses after crossing the stream.
12. Make haste slowly. Danger is next neighbor to security. Rehearse your risks in private. Fantasize first. Imagine what you would do, say, and respond. You can reduce your fears by confronting them first in your own way, in your own mind, at your own time. Caution is thinking today and speaking tomorrow.
13. But don't shirk or delay. The longer you wait, the harder it will seem. Caution is the word of cowardice for some, and what we call cowardice in others. Caution might also be called the confidential agent of selfishness.
14. Seek success. Many find failure because they are not looking for success. Whenever you finally decide to take a risk, be really committed. Success is what you personally feel or think. Each person is different meaning for and attitude what constitutes success. Success is the child of audacity.
15. Make schedules. Timetables are not really followed by trains or planes, but you can at least try to make one. Any aid in prediction will make your risk easier. So will being aware of the next step.
16. Don't compound risks. Too many risks means too many results. So don't compound your anxieties. Failing is one risk may undermine your self-confidence in another.
Self-esteem = pretensions / success.
17. Don't fight facts; adjust. On occasions, you may have to admit the risk is too great for the realities involved. Success is outliving your sins. It is a result, not a goal.
18. Don't quit too quickly. Success is the old ABC -- ability, breaks, and courage. Jesus' definition of success was to complete one's life. It is to attain eternal life. All else is failure.
19. But don't hang on too long. Just so long as to get enough to eat without being eaten.
20. Blame yourself only. It is a waste of time to blame anyone else for your own failure. Save the time to start over on your next risk. Self-pity is the worst enemy.
21. Trust, but not too blindly. Risking means mostly trust yourself. If you know your blind spots -- your greed, your selfishness -- you can avoid the pot holes of your inhibitions and fears. Self-trust is the essence of heroism and first secret to success.
22. Risk your life only when assured of incurable cancer. Before the time, the odds may still be in your favor. Self-preservation is the first of laws.
23. Seek greater self-knowledge. Then your risks will be more self-motivated. It is hardly worth taking a risk if you do not get more self-knowledge as one result. You cannot be playing around on important issues.
24. Take your own risks. You cannot afford to put your fate in another person's hands. You need the experience for the time first time when the next bigger risk comes along that you cannot subdelagate. Self-respect is that corner stone of all virtues.
25. Avoid others' risks. You owe it to them to grow in their own ways. Trying to play the role of the protector for adults will only lead to their resenting you. In this instance, selfishness is not a true form of infantilism. Self-loving is nothing more than self-affirmation.
26. Never risk just for the sake for proving yourself. When we were kids, we sometimes could not estimate the danger. Since you have lived this long already, you may not want to push your luck too far. Walking on tightropes at age 72 will only prove something to morticians. Self-knowledge is that which grows out of man's self-confrontation with God.
27. List what can go wrong -- and why. Then you might be able to recognize a problem before it becomes a tragedy.
28. List what can go right -- and why. Then you can more readily differentiate between your assets and liabilities. Some creative problem solving may enable you turn a possible liability into an assets.
29. Concentrate on the task. A short-term risk will take all your energies. And your investment will pay off if you can put in enough effort. Naturally, a long-term risk will permit you to look at the other option as you go along.
30. Keep your ideals. The happiest people are those can take risks that create the best possible life for themselves. All growth is change. All change requires risks. You have to risk to grow up to be the person you want to be. Keep on truckin' once you are moving.