Be a Risk Taker: Go for it Even if You’re Scared

The other day I was watching one of Suzi’s videos (from Start a Mom Blog) on YouTube. In this particular video Suzi was answering viewers’ questions. One viewer commented that she’d been working on her blog for over a year but still hadn’t pushed the publish button. Clearly she was nervous and just not ready. What was Suzi’s response? Be a risk taker! Just do it and press publish. It doesn’t matter if the posts are perfect or the exact way you want it to be.

This video got me thinking, what other areas of life can you and I be a risk takers? And what happens when you start taking risks in your life?

Why Should you become a Risk Taker

I’ve found that most things in life can be scary. Starting a new job, having a child, buying a home – all of these life steps require that you take a leap of faith and go for it.

If you never take any of these chances you’ll never know how fantastic the new job is, how much fun it is to have a child and the feeling of owning your own spot in the world. Life would likely be boring and uneventful if you never make any changes and take those risks. 

How to Be a Risk Taker 

I don’t think my friends and family would call me a risk taker. In fact I’m rather conservative when it comes to many things like big purchases and career decisions. However, in my personal life, I’ve had to listen to the advertising folks at Nike and “just do it”.

Taking Risks by Starting a Blog 

I started this blog not knowing how it would go, if I’d enjoy working on it or if it would actually reach anyone. Of course I was nervous and scared to press publish just like the viewer in Suzi’s video. When I launched the blog nothing happened (I mean this in a good way). It wasn’t scary and the world didn’t crumble around me.

Rather, blogging became a great way to express myself. I am now super interested in learning about social media and I’ve been able to reach out to people all over the world who I may not have been able to reach before.

The ability to reach people is one of the main reasons I started the blog. I want to connect with other thyroid cancer survivors (and those living with the condition) and people who either have a tethered spinal cord or have a child with one. Both of these communities aren’t huge and if we can support each other it will make a big difference.

Being a Risk Taker by Starting a Facebook Group

I’m sure many of you are in plenty of Facebook groups. Starting one of your own can be scary and intimidating especially if it’s in a niche area. You’re afraid that no one will join, that it won’t help your target audience and that it will be too much work to possibly handle.

My friends and I had to get over all of these fears when we started Women Evolving and Leading in Law our Facebook group for female legal professionals. We knew there was a need for increased community in the legal profession, especially for women, and figured we’d try it out. 

Our group has grown tremendously and we’re now experimenting with different ways to reach out and communicate with this group of awesome women. Who knows where it might lead…

Just do it – Get on Video

This point is for my blogging friends. Video is huge and an important part of any promotion strategy. Honestly, I find video intimidating and super scary. It’s hard to put myself out there puffy eyes and all for people to see. 

In my videos you’re seeing the real me. I rarely wear makeup and have super curly hair that sometimes goes bananas in the humidity. That’s ok. Even though it’s scary to put myself on IGTV and Facebook Live but I just go for it. This is what you need to do to.

Taking the Risk and Starting a New Fitness Plan

I‘ve told my health story before and I’m still working on recovering from all of these problems. Despite of these challenges I’m taking the chance and leaping into the fitness world again. I started working out and focusing on my nutrition a couple of months ago and I’m already feeling better. Follow me on Instagram to learn more about what I’m doing. 

Through all of these examples of how I personally jump off the scary platform everyday I hope you can find inspiration. If I can do this, you can too. All you need to do is go slow, start small and treat any of these big scary things as experiments. If they work – amazing! If not, that’s ok too. 

So please tell me in the comments what risk are you going to take today? If you need any encouragement just reach out either via email or on social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and I’ll be happy to help.