Move Forward, Stay Put, or Step Back

Its all around us. Business, personal life, adventure...no escaping risk.

Move Forward, Stay Put, or Step Back

We define risk as pushing forward into something unpredictable. It can also be staying put, or even stepping back. Regardless of the movement chosen, one characteristic of risk is clear. Risk is everywhere!

Risk began for all of us even before birth. Parents take a risk having a child. No guarantees. The mother’s health is at risk. Pregnancy and delivery are unpredictable, fraught with outcomes and the delivery can be hard. Then the fun begins. Now there is a new life to be considered and accommodated. Joy! And risk!

Risk exists for a father in that moment as well. There is financial risk, emotional risk and relational risk. All future risks are multiplied, expanded and complicated. Stay as you are? Or just do it? Step back and forego any options of good and perhaps encounter an unexpected form of bad? Its risk any way you look at it.

Risk is present from day one—or day one minus months of waiting! No escaping the impact of risk. There are maxims that highlight how risk affects us all. “Better to try and fail, than to never try at all.” This can also be said of love, relationships, change, business, gardening, every breathing moment of life. Nothing is immune, not even doing nothing! Being stagnate creates the risk of FOMO—fear of missing out! It raises the specter of “what if?” and “if only…” There is just no escaping risk.

Can risk be mitigated? Are there ways to not lie awake thinking? Are all outcomes equal? Questions present themselves. They are often without answers. Now that is unsettling and stress inducing at best!.

Regardless of the choices made, the outcomes, or the wave-heights while neck-deep in the process, risk is unavoidable. The best we can expect from the “move forward, stay put, step back” process is that it is a learning experience.

We can learn to trust ourselves.

We can learn that regardless of good or bad, even indifferent outcomes, that we did consider the options, made a thoughtful choice, and recognized the risks. And lived with the results.

We can learn to trust others—or when to be wary of trusting others.

All motives are not created equal. All priorities have different weights for different people. We can learn to recognize, evaluate, weigh the position of others and incorporate that position into our risk assessment and resulting decisions.

We can learn about ourselves.

How do we process risk? Are we making considered decisions? How do we react when risks are taken and turn out for the good of all, or for the detriment of some and the good of others?

The most valuable outcome of all risk assessment and resulting outcomes lies here: your personal response. Knowing yourself, and recognizing good and bad assessments, can factor into the next encounter with risk. This is a good and valuable learning experience. Certainly risk will present itself.

Choose whether you will move forward and embrace risk and its outcome, stay put and feel comfortable in place if and when others move forward or away, or step back in the face of risk and let risk take its course.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Comments? Personal stories of dealing with risk? Advice? This post is meant to lead to your personal consideration. We welcome your communication at karenmac1999@hotmail.com.