Order and download this entire eight-part audio program.

(…continued from last week)

Three Phases To Risking

If you’re talking about taking a risk, you’re talking about change.

People tend to resist change because of a few things. 1) lacking knowledge or skill to do something new or something different than they’re now doing, 2) discomfort with new things or doing things differently than they currently are, 3) physical or resource restrictions – not enough time, people, money, energy, fear of what’s confronting them or what’s coming up in front of them, or 4) projecting negative past or future events, predicting that things are not going to go the way they want.

We resist moving out of our comfort zone because of these. There’s a comfort zone we all try and reside in most of the time. There’s much more that makes us uncomfortable than we feel comfortable with because we can’t possibly know all things, do all things, be big enough, be rich enough, have enough free time, or have great enough technology. It’s not possible to have something to compensate for all of that stuff out there that we can’t do effectively.

Ending–Emotional Turmoil–New Beginning

So our comfort zone is much smaller than those things outside of us that make us uncomfortable.

It is very human to resist changing, to not take risks because of fear of the unknown. What’s in front of us oftentimes scares us. The normal reaction when we have that fear is to procrastinate, to hesitate, to wait, to take time to think about it.

Again, that’s not a bad thing, yet if you truly want to move into a better tomorrow you better be taking some risks today – you have to learn and grow, you need to take action.

There are really three primary aspects of any change–the ending of something that’s currently going on, the emotional chaos of what’s going on inside of you when this happens, and the new beginning you are moving in to. When you take a risk or make a change, the ending, the new beginning and the emotional turmoil all kick-off at the same time.

Overview Personal Change

What is a change in your life that if it happened could cause severe distress? How about the loss of someone you care about, whether they move far away and you can’t see them any longer or perhaps they pass away?

What is the ending? The obvious ending is your inability to see them, they’re gone. And in addition, other endings are all the activities you did together – the holidays, the parties, the sporting events, the being close to them and their family, the talks you had, getting together for dinners, etc. – all of that is over, you can’t do that any longer.

And so, you start a new beginning. You have to move into something new. You have to begin doing things to fill up that space in your life which was just vacated.

You might need to find new people to celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah and 4th of July parties and parades and fishing and hunting and golfing and playing tennis and babysitting each other’s’ children and taking time to go out and party a bit together, on and on.

So when that “thing” ends, you have to start anew. The new beginning will cause some anxiety because it’s out of your comfort zone to at least some degree. It’s new, it’s not the status quo, something has ended, you’ve lost something and have to begin something new. That means you’ve got to step out of your comfort zone. You have to do things that are going to help you move to the next level.

What can you do to do that? That’s one of the considerations. Every time something in your life changes, you must consider what you are going to begin, what you are going to let go of, and what you have to give up.

Emotional Turmoil

There is no one who can step into something brand new without feeling a little bit of nervousness–that’s completely normal. Emotional turmoil is part of the change process.

Every time you take new action, there is that little bit of anxiety about doing something new, unique and different than you’ve done before. That nervousness is a good thing. It can keep you from making foolish mistakes. It can stop you from jumping into things too soon.

Yet at the same time, that nervousness can inhibit you from moving forward. Because during the ending process there is frequently the loss of something we value and it’s painful. Something has to stop in order for something new to start. What we’re stopping may not be so bad that we’re really ready to give it up, even though I know it’s time to move on.

The discomfort of letting go is a very “human becoming” process. At the moment that you step into doing something new, you are in the moment of risk. All through the preparing, the making a commitment, the moving on and doing the new thing, you have to mentally and physically take care of yourself.

Have you ever passed a car on a country road? For most people there’s at least a little bit of nervousness when you go to do that. What if you can’t see far enough? What if you’re coming up to a hill? What if it’s straight but it’s dark and there may be people out there who don’t have their lights on?

Passing another car is one of those taking a risk moments and in that process there is some nervousness about it. It doesn’t mean don’t do it, it just means pay attention, be aware, don’t be caught by surprise and get hurt in the process.

Risking Is From Dissatisfaction

The first aspect of risking is preparing to take the risk. You need to recognize that it’s time. You know that you need to do something, you have a desire to change.

The way we go through this preparation process varies from person to person. It’s like when some people go to pass a car, they just go for it, other people very slowly creep out there more cautiously then finally commit themselves and pass.

We need to find our way of passing from one thing to the next. Recognizing that we need to do something, we need to take a chance, is always threatening. Because we are stepping out of our comfort zone, we doing something we’re not fully sure of, we’re trying new things, we’re moving into a new uncharted territory.

We have to admit that it’s not as safe as it has been in the past. Those fears that we experience when we step up to making this change can be to our benefit. We have to admit what we don’t know, we have to look at what we don’t know and begin to work at making changes in it.

(to be continued…)

Has this program caught your interest? Just can’t wait to hear the next segment? Or perhaps you’d like to download the entire program to your phone or tablet and listen during your travels? You can purchase and immediately receive this entire program as a digital download. You will receive all 9 audio segments, plus a 25 page PDF transcript! Order Now: Risking – Going For The Gold Medal

Embracing Change
4 Core Strategies Essential To Managing Change! Change is inevitable. When change occurs it happens on two levels, both of which can be tough to handle. Resistance to change through procrastinating, or trying to sidestep what’s occurring, is absolutely normal. Would you like to learn a way to rapidly control your mental and emotional reactions when stressed or when change hits? Would you like to know a strategy to better handle other people’s negativity toward change? During this program you will learn strategies for effectively dealing with the rapids of change.