The Possibility Curve

Most of us don’t take enough risks. Why? It is human nature to want to feel comfortable, safe and in control. Risk, by its very definition, makes us feel uncomfortable, insecure and out of control. The difficulty in taking a significant risk is that it creates a direct and unavoidable internal conflict. This conflict is exaggerated by another aspect of our human nature: our tendency to doubt ourselves too quickly, even though we know we have more strengths, talents and skills than we are using. This combination often starts a domino effect. We question ourselves. Internal alarms go off warning us that we may not have what it takes. We hesitate and in our hesitation we allow fear, anger and ego to slip in; if we don’t regain balance quickly, we can become lost, which reinforces our belief that we don’t have what it takes.

This undermines our true abilities and causes us to underestimate ourselves. This domino effect most often results in our giving up and quitting too soon. With a true risk you will never be sure of what will happen next or how it will turn out. There is only one thing you can truly count on and that is yourself. Risk is the difference between how difficult you perceive the challenge to be and how much you believe in your own abilities.

The Intelligent Risk Taking Premise from the book Positive Risk

If you underestimate yourself, then you are overestimating the risk.