This week’s blog’s going to be a shorter one, because this topic’s something that I’m still trying to come to terms with.
Risk is something that, in my opinion, has been fabricated by our beautiful minds to keep us safe, whole, and protected from the dangers that lurk in the dark.
It’s something we’re so used to living with. We never seem to understand just how much it affects the choices we make daily.
Which is why I wanted to share what my current relationship with risk is, and how I hope it’ll change over the coming weeks, months, and years.
For the longest time, I’ve shied away from risk. It comes from within. I don’t want to be judged. I don’t want people to see the fear, self-doubt, and shining ball of “oh my god I can’t do this why am I doing this writing bad stay in box” that simmers just below the surface.
I accept the shining orb and understand what it’s doing. It’s trying to keep me safe, to keep my dreams from being shattered into a thousand tiny pieces of wouldn’t-it-be-nice-if-I-succeeded.
But times have changed.
Since then, I’ve tried to bring the risk out into the open. I’ve mulled it over like a fresh bottle of wine, cracked open the cork, taken a sip, and put it to one side.
I understand that the perceived risk to me in my professional life is that I am always going to be judged.
That’s the beast of creativity. Whatever we put out into the world, someone is going to judge. Everyone has their own opinions; it’s how I adjust to them that counts. What I now understand is this:
But I now know that I must control the risk. I must have measures in place, both mentally and physically, which keeps myself, and my business, moving forward.
If I let the risk control me, I’m never going to put out new bodies of work.
I won’t create. I won’t develop. I won’t reach the people who I want to reach. My readers.
That wonderful community of word lovers who want to escape the humdrum of everyday, and discover new worlds filled with magic, found family and adventure.
So, I set myself boundaries.
I limit the use of social media, so I don’t let the risk of overwhelm and impostor-syndrome take control.
I keep my interactions purely through my newsletter and this blog, so I can control the risk of putting myself into a situation I find uncomfortable.
I joined a group of like-minded creatives, so I control the risk of sitting here, by myself, day after day, wondering whether everything I’m doing is worth it.
I read books I love, sometimes multiple times, to remind myself that someone else, someone with more experience than me, started somewhere.
That book, which I’m holding (and yes, sometimes smelling), was made by choice. They accepted the risk and go with it, anyway.
It took work, grit, determination and plenty of work, and the risk was entirely worth it.
Because their work, their words, touched someone they don’t know, probably on the other side of the world, in a way they couldn’t have imagined.
In summary
Told you this week would be shorter!
So now, it’s over to you. What’s your relationship with risk? What do you do when something appears more challenging that it might be? What strategies do you have, or what strategies do you wish you had, that help?
I’d love to hear from you, so make sure you reach out in the comments below, or sign up to my free author newsletter, and give me a shout.
Look forward to speaking to you soon!
Robyn
