THE FOUR DIMENSIONS OF RISK TAKING: How to confidently take on calculated risk, without being scared or feeling insecure

Introduction

Have you ever been in a situation where you backed out because of the fear of losing everything by taking that risk?

I too can confirm myself in that kind of situation. A lot of times, we find ourselves reinforcing our limited boundaries with strength due to the ramifications that may occur by taking that risky risk

I present to you the four dimensions of risk-taking. Methods that I confidently make use of to take on risky situations. Many people secure all manner of life insurances from health insurances, car, business, and even replacement policies for our cell phones to provide us with the security we think we need. This fear of being secured or securing our personal belongings, businesses e.t.c. has constrained our hidden abilities. Instead of taking all kinds of measures to secure ourselves and feed our fears to grow, therefore keeping us in an envelope without breaking limits, why don't you use these four dimensions of risk-taking that I am presenting to you to calculate your risk-taking and to cast out fear.

The four dimensions of risk-taking are; (1) Drafting out a detailed plan of action that you will follow to take the risk. (2) Forecasting the benefits and consequences that the risk will generate. Also, look out for the possible problems that may occur from implementing each step of your action plan. When you have a forecast of these consequences or problems, it prompts you to devise a counter-motion towards them. The benefits are like fuel that motivates you and gives you the zeal to push through with your plans.

(3)  Gather as much information as you can, that is relevant to that risk. Saturating yourself with the knowledge of the risk to be taken gives you a 270 degree

understanding of the risk. The 90-degree unknown knowledge will result from the unforeseen problem that will arise during the step by step implementation of your detailed action plan.

(4)  Pray, Sleep, Meditate. If you are a religious person, irrespective of your faith, I will urge you to pray to your God. God is the Creator of all things and surely he will give you a perfect answer or plan for you to take the risk without encountering any form of complications, along the way, or at the end of everything. Sleeping, on the other hand, has been proving by so many researchers, to bring a solution on how you should take a risk effectively through dreams, without any negative ramifications. Meditation is the door of revelation. In the process of meditating, so many great thinkers encounter the Eureka moment. A moment of access to the breakthrough idea.

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Drafting a well-detailed action plan
“A man without a plan is a man without direction and will wander about his Goals and may never get to achieve it.”

A written plan in detail gives you a clear destination and step by step action to take in taking that risk confidently and with the hope of achieving the benefits that you want to get from taking that risk.

Let me share with you a strategy I use to draft out my action plan. My appreciation goes out to Brian Tracy. He is an author, a life trainer, and a great personality. In one of his books "NO EXCUSES; THE POWER OF SELF-DISCIPLINE” which I was fortunate to read, he presented a very wonderful way of drafting out an action plan for any goal you want to pursue. I have used this strategy severally and it has transformed my life by giving me direction.

The strategy is called “mind storming”. This is the most powerful creative thinking technique I have ever seen. More people have become wealthy using this method than any other way.

Procedure; Take a sheet of paper. Write out what you want to achieve by taking that risk. It is like a goal, that you want to achieve. 

 

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Write it at the top of the page in the form of a question as, “How can I go through this xxxx risky situation

without any negative ramifications by this specific date?”

 

You then discipline yourself to write a minimum of twenty answers to the question.

This exercise of “mind storming” will activate your mind, unleash your creativity, and give you ideas that you may never have thought of before. The first three to five answers will be easy. The next five will be difficult, and the last ten answers will be harder than you can imagine, at least the first time you do the exercise.

Nonetheless, you must exert your discipline and willpower to persist until you have written down at least twenty answers. Once you have generated twenty answers, look over your list and select one of these answers to take action on immediately. It seems that when you take action on a single idea on your list, it triggers more ideas and motivate you to take action on even more of these answers.

The list must include the knowledge and skills you must have to acquire to undertake that risk. This will give you confidence and will make you analyze the risk deeply.

It must also include a list of people whose cooperation and support you will require to take that risk. These people should be individuals that had gone through that same path of risk-taking (Experienced people) and those who have a deep understanding of "how-to", implement each step of your action plan. This will aid in disintegrating negative ramifications.

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Forecasting benefits and possible problems
“It is known that the greatest fear of humans is the fear of the unknown”.

Predicting the benefits that you will access in taking that risk, will serve as a motivation or a fuel to keep the fire of that hope burning. This will help you think positively about the risky situation.

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The essence of forecasting any problems that may occur in the implementation of each planned step is to prompt you to develop a plan to reduce the damages that will result from taking that risk.

There is a strategy I use to forecast the benefits and possible problems that may occur when taking a risky decision. I do ask myself these four questions;

1.     What is the best thing that can happen if I do this?

2.     What is the worst that can happen if I do this?

3.     What is the best thing that can happen if I don’t do this?

4.     What is the worst thing that can happen if I don’t do this?

 

By the time, I have thought through those four questions, I would have already had a clear picture of the possible benefits I will get and likewise the possible problems I am bound to encounter. There are times that just by thinking of the benefits that will come out from taking that risk; a strong desire will be stirred up in me to take that risk without even harboring any fear in me when considering the possible problems that will occur along the way.

Have a deep understanding of the risk you are taking

At this junction, you will have to gather as much information as you can access, concerning the risk you are taking. “Saturating yourself with the knowledge of the risk you are undertaking, plays a key role in infusing confidence into you and casting out fear”.

This information can be gotten from articles, podcasts, YouTube videos, survey questionnaires, having a one and one discussion with experienced people (people who have undergone that risk before, and maybe for one or two reasons failed), pros, family, and friends.

Reviewing the gathered information and making connections between the gathered information, gives you a deep understanding of the risk you are planning to take. It also produces strategies that you will apply to undertake that risk and to counter the possible difficulties or problems that may occur in taking that risk.

This stage, also opens the doors of meditation, praying, and sleeping. With an emphasis on Meditation, reviewing gathered information and making connections between them, causes your mind to think (meditate) in preparation for what I called the EUREKA MOMENT in the introduction above. I confess to you that this stage alone will inject so much confidence in you therefore casting out fear.

Praying, meditating, and sleeping

Praying; I believe in a supreme being called God. To announce to you, I am a Christian. Irrespective of your religion, I will urge you to pray to your various Gods. God knows the answers to every problem in the world. When we pray, we must believe in our hearts that God will answer our prayers. These answers, come to us, in the form of dreams while we sleep. Over the years, I have developed the habit of writing down every dream that comes to me whilst sleeping on a

particular book called “the dream book”. At first, we may not see the importance of cultivating this habit, but I confess to you that many great breakthrough ideas come in our dreams. So please, I urge you to start practicing the habit of writing down your dreams immediately in a book, lest you forget. Most times the dreams we have are answers to some risky situation that we may be faced with in the future to come.

There are several ways God can give us a way out of a risky situation without encountering any damaging ramifications at the end.

Great ideas come as thoughts into the minds of great men and women, who have been devoting their energy and time seeking for a perfect strategy to nullify negative ramifications when they enter into a risky situation. I confess to you, the deposition of those great ideas or strategies into the minds of great thinkers didn’t just come as a result of them analyzing the risky situation only but as a split second revelation into their minds in the process of meditating.

Dr. Ben Carson said and I quote "There are a lot of things in life beyond our human ability, knowledge, and control. But there is nothing beyond God". I have never seen any situation where worry or fear helps in taking a risky decision.

So I will always pray, meditate, and sleep peacefully. I believe if we all do that we will all have less to worry about taking any risk.

Conclusion

From all the four dimensions, listed above, I can define “Risk as an opportunity that challenges us to grow by presenting a situation that necessitates us to break out of our constrained boundaries, therefore inputting confidence in us and casting out fear”.

When faced with a risky situation to handle, always calm yourself by applying those four dimensions and see as you grow exponentially by breaking boundaries. Always sit down to draft out a detailed action plan, forecast the benefits and problems that may arise, and think positively about the benefits. Draft out a plan to counter the possible problems that may arise. Saturate yourself with the knowledge about the risk you are taking. Remember to pray, meditate (think on how to go through that risk without any damages). And please do sleep well and write down your dreams. The breakthrough idea to take that risk without any problem may come through your dreams.

Keep this in mind “There’s nothing impossible in life. We can achieve all things if only we challenge ourselves to take a step of faith and take that risk”.