How To Risk More & Fear Less

All my life I have been taking risks – and I’m still breathing.

Whenever facing yet another challenge in my life – and they do come from time to time – I often look at my wife and say, ‘Well I’m not dead yet.’

The fact is that until you’re dead there is so much more that you need to do that may involve some form of risk.

Well what’s the point of wrapping yourself up in cotton wool anyway?

But while we’re thinking about risk let’s take a quick look at your life.

• As a child when you started walking did you risk falling, or did you risk walking?

• When you attended school and partook the tests given to you by your teachers, did you risk failing or did you risk succeeding?

• When you ran that race did you risk coming last, or did you risk winning?

• When you went for your car license did you risk walking, or did you risk driving in traffic for the rest of your days?

Robbed In Paris

I recall travelling to Paris with my eldest daughter.

As soon as I had stepped off the plane I realised that I had left my wallet behind. By the time a staff member went back to find it, it was gone.

So there we were – my daughter and I in Paris with no wallet, very little cash and no credit cards. To add to the moment our luggage had been destroyed in transit from London.

Fortunately, before I’d hopped on the plane I had handed my daughter some cash – enough to catch a train to our pre-booked hotel.

My school French lessons had not prepared me though for clear communication with the Parisians.

So from our little-understood communication with an attendant at the airport we found our way to the train station that we trusted would take to our destination.

Brush With Death

Then as we hopped on one train I suddenly realised that it wasn’t the right one, and before I was able to alight from the train my bag and myself became caught in the closing doors of the carriage as the train was about to move off.

My daughter, still standing on the platform, recalls that what was about to happen to me appeared to her in a state of slow motion. Even though I was stuck firmly – bag and all – in the trains doors it was as if I was physically picked up and thrown gently on to the platform landing on top of the case that had just caused ne all the trouble.

Uninjured, we finally caught the right train and arrived at our hotel with no money for food or anything else.

The first thing I did was call my credit card company and cancel the stolen cards and they informed me that new cards would be delivered within 24 hours.

But what to do for food?

Fortunately the hotel loaned my daughter and I a small amount of money to carry us over.

What followed was a session in a Parisian police station trying to communicate with a gendarme about out predicament and the unlikelihood of recovering our lost property, finally getting our credit cards and then battling to get a cash advance once they arrived.

New bags had to be purchased, and finally we were now free to explore some of the sites that included us climbing both the Eiffel Tower, the Arc Of Triumph, along with a tour of the Louvre.

What topped it though was taking my daughter out late one night to eat a scrumptious dessert in a fancy restaurant.

The Lesson Learned

The smile on my daughter’s face made it all worthwhile – that amidst the risks taken, and the fears faced, we had overcome all the obstacles by learning to answer the following questions:

• What if I fail?
• What if I do nothing?
• What if I succeed?

Risk positions you to discover the answers to those three questions.

But the facts remain: that you will never, never, never know unless you ever, ever, ever go.

So I charge you to risk more and fear less by asking yourself those three key questions. Watch what wonderful things you will begin to behold.

It’s a big beautiful world out there waiting for you and I to discover.