“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” ― Helen Keller, The Open Door

The ability to take calculated risks, it turns out, is actually an essential human trait, crucial to our development as a species and as individuals, say experts. Our risk-taking ancestors were the survivors, the daring ones who took chances to adapt to a changing environment.

It is absolutely necessary to take chances to achieve anything great in life, however many are scared to take the initial leap.

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As with any risk, there is always something at stake. In most instances, when it comes to your business, you stand to lose money, time and your reputation. Which are also the very same things you stand to gain! The benefits of taking risks will enrich your life and make your business or career much more rewarding.

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Whether you succeed or fail, taking a risk will stretch you and give you faith in your strength and abilities and the confidence to do even more. The risks I took 15 years ago are a walk in the park for me now, as I take on even bigger goals with their even greater risks.

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Life doesn’t come with guarantees. That can make it risky and perhaps scary, but it’s also what makes it interesting and fun. Even if you’re not a gambler by nature, there’s something exhilarating about taking a risk and winning. As you go through your life, the parts that are going to stand out are not the ones where you plodded along safely and did what was expected of you. The shining memories will be the times when you took a leap of faith, whether you won or not.

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The fact is, facing things that make us uncomfortable offers a cluster of psychological benefits that Ungar calls “the risk-taker’s advantage.” This experience is crucial for anyone who wants to be emotionally resilient, confident, happy, and engaged with life. You don’t have to take up parachuting or gambling to reap the rewards, either. You just have to give more attention to those areas that feel challenging — and intriguing — to you, and embrace the adventure of uncertainty. “Do one thing every day that scares you,” Eleanor Roosevelt once said. On the other side of that fear, opportunity awaits.

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