I was talking recently with a friend about some of the things that I have done which I thought were scary. And we were wondering why it is that people put themselves in a position to be frightened, and in particular why some people take what appears to others to be huge risks of leaping off mountains while others struggle with standing on the kitchen chair. And this is not a uniform characteristic. The person who throws themself off a mountain may find new social situations or public speaking totally threatening, while the person who struggles to stand on the kitchen chair is happy to start a new business or address an audience of thousands.
As we talked we were discussing just what is it that makes the approach to risk taking for different things so different to different people? Then out of my mouth popped “the fun is in the risk”. It was one of those answers just arrived by itself, one of those realisations, a light bulb moment.
When we take risks, it is a bit frightening. But that is exactly why it’s fun. In fact if it is not scary, if it does not have that edge, then the fun factor goes away.
But some risks we are willing to take and others are unacceptable. What is the difference? The difference is belief. If you believe that you will manage whatever or overcome the problem, then the risk is fun. If you do not believe that you can manage, the risk is not enjoyment, it is torment.
The people who throw themselves off mountains believe that their equipment and their skills will see them safely through. For the people who cannot bring themselves to use a bungee jump, it is because they cannot bring themselves to believe that they will not come to some sort of harm.
So, if you are facing something that looks too scary, it may be easy to resolve … change your belief.
If you have the confidence that your skills, capabilities and other resources will enable you to successfully complete a task, then it may be scary but fun. So if you want to be more capable – and have more fun – the most important thing you can do is work on your belief. Build your belief that you CAN, belief that you will not come to harm.
You will find that the more you believe in yourself, the more things that you CAN do, and the more fun you will have. So build your belief!
Have a look at clearwater coffee to see how we are building our belief.