Risk & Reward

Hello everyone and Happy Labor Day! I hope everyone has had an enjoyable day off and was able to spend time with family and friends. If you did have to work today, I hope you made the very best of it, too!
Below, you will find the first video to my new YouTube channel. I would appreciate your support and following! And please feel free to add thoughts and comments on this and future videos!
The primary focus of this week’s video, aside from an introduction, is to discuss risk and reward. As most of you are aware, without taking risks in life there is not an opportunity for a reward – at least a reward of which you are deserving. You see, everything you and I have accomplished in our lives is a result of risks we’d taken. Think back to when you were just a young child when learning to ride a bike. At that point, learning to ride a bike was likely one of the most difficult and challenging tasks you had to deal with. You had to risk potentially falling flat on your face, getting bumps, bruises, or scrapes when falling down. Additionally, you had to risk the fact that you may be teased or looked at funny because mom or dad were still holding on to you while “in training”, or in fact you had to ride with the training wheels while others were riding freely. You chose to do this because you wanted the reward of being able to have freedom and ride to create new adventures.  Although there was pain associated with the thought of falling down and being teased, you were willing to endure it because the thought of being able to one day ride freely on your own was increasingly more satisfying than the alternative of never trying and having to stay home while others rode bicycles.
This is just one example of many risks that you’ve likely taken in your life to gain a reward. If you truly take time to think about what you’ve accomplished in your life, you’ll recognize that all of it has involved some sort of risk. Have you joined a sports team? Started a new job? Quit a job? Created new friendships and relationships? Walked away from friendships and/or relationships? Moved from home? Went to college? Dropped out of college?
Whatever the case may be, risks have been a part of your life. And for that, I commend you. It’s not easy taking risks. Often time they leave you uncomfortable and fearful while walking into the unknown. However, I can assure you, if you want to keep growing, if you want to attain the level of success you desire financially, relationally, physically, and/or emotionally, then you need to take BIGGER risks! You see, the more you risk, the more you gain! If we’re just risking minimally because we don’t like to be too uncomfortable, then our reward is going to reflect that. But, if you are willing to jump into the deep end, without truly even knowing how to swim, the reward you’ll gain in return will not only be much larger, but it will too be more satisfying.
So, I encourage you as you move forward with the remainder of this week and year to begin taking bigger risks. Start asking questions you may have been fearful of hearing the answers to. Don’t be afraid to quit your job that makes you feel miserable. Expand your network and begin creating friendships that will bring you up instead of bringing you down. Seek out new adventures and attempt to do something that you’d been otherwise told would be impossible. Risk it all, and be not afraid of the end result. Because I can assure you, if you take the first step in deciding to take a large risk, as long as you work hard, are persistent, and relentless in your pursuit, your reward will outweigh any of which you’ve had in the past!
BIG RISKS = BIG REWARDS!!!!