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”.
How to be a risk taker and why you should start today! From The Professional Mom Project #momlife Click To TweetTaking 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.
Janice Wald says
Hi Nicole,
I loved your post. This post won the Inspire Me Monday Linky Party and will be featured on my site tomorrow.
Congratulations!
Janice
Nicole Salama says
Hi Janice thanks so much for featuring my post on your awesome link party! I’m so glad you enjoyed reading it.
Janice Wald says
Great overview of all the risks bloggers take. By the way, I have a chronic thyroid problem. Used to be overactive. Then they cured it and now I’m underactive and take supplements.
Janice
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J. Ivy Boyter says
I’ve headed over from the Wonderful Wednesday hop.
As an introvert, I feel it’s really difficult taking certain risks, although others not so much. I’ll race, go skydiving, and one day want to do a shark dive. But, I find things like video and interviews really difficult, but I remind myself each time that I can’t grow if I don’t try. I started a YouTube channel despite my fear and the more I do it, the more comfortable I become.
Great information. Thanks for sharing.
Nicole Salama says
Thanks so much for your comment Ivy. Wow you’ve done some amazing things! I’ll have to check out your youtube channel congrats on starting it.
Ashley at Armadillo Bulldog says
I need to be better at this with content I create as well. I tend to leave things half finished because I feel like I need the time or attention to come back to them and make them perfect, or at least good enough to share. I’ve realized that seldom happens, and if I don’t hit “post” on something during the first week after I write it out, it’s just never going to get done. Thanks for the reminder!
Nicole Salama says
Hi Ashley I think so many of us struggle with that sort of perfectionism. We want to put our best foot forward at all times and sometimes we don’t have the time to make it the “best”. Personally, putting something out there is a huge accomplishment and sometimes we just have to go for it! (even when it’s not how we want it to be)
Missy says
Love this! Fairly new to blogging, and still scared of IGTV. I might give it a try
Nicole Salama says
Hi Missy contrats on starting your blog! You should totally give IGTV a try. I think I still prefer IG stories since they’re a bit quicker to create but IGTV is a good way to get started with video. Good luck!
Kristina Gavigan says
Love this! I just took the step in joining the world of blogging! You have to put yourself out there or you just might miss out on something wonderful:)
Nicole Salama says
Hi Kristina congrats on taking the leap into blogging! if you have any questions just message me and I’m happy to help
Kim says
I was one of those “wait until it’s perfect” people until about 6 weeks ago when I called into a radio show hosted by a guy who gives career advice. He told me to create a Facebook page and post something THAT DAY, which I did. I’ve been posting to my blog twice a week ever since and I’m loving every minute of it! I’m glad I took that leap of faith.
Nicole Salama says
That’s amazing Kim! Sometimes I think it just helps to have someone else tell us to take the risk. It can just give us a small push in the right direction.
Corrie Alexander says
Love this! It’s completely true that risk-taking is a necessity to some degree in order to grow you and your business. I know so many people who have all these amazing ideas and ambitions but are terrified to even start. It took me a long time myself to realize that the only thing worse than failure is a lifetime of wondering what could have been if only I’d tried.
Also, I totally hear you on the video stuff! I just took a risk yesterday by uploading my very first screen share video that didn’t even have my face, just my voice… but even that was really hard for me to put it out there! But every time I do something scary or uncomfortable, I know that no matter what the outcome, at least I will grow and learn from it. 🙂
Nicole Salama says
Amazing Corrie! I totally agree with you about the fear of starting vs wondering what might have been. That’s why I try to take small risks so I know I’m slowly going in the right direction. Take care!