Guest Blogger

How To Make Hard Choices & Risky Decisions.

Life is a series of crossroads, each presenting us with choices that can shape our future. Some decisions are straightforward, while others are fraught with complexity and risk.

These hard choices often lead us to confront our fears, uncertainties, and deeply held beliefs. Yet, it’s in these moments of uncertainty that we have the opportunity to grow, learn, and ultimately, define who we are.

Making hard choices requires a delicate balance between reason and intuition, analysis and emotion. It’s about weighing the potential outcomes, considering the risks involved, and understanding the impact of our decisions on ourselves and others.

Whether it’s deciding on a career path, ending a relationship, or pursuing a new opportunity, hard choices demand careful deliberation and a willingness to embrace discomfort.

What are hard choices?

What makes a hard choice hard is the way alternatives relate. In any easy choice, one alternative is better than the other. In a hard choice, one alternative is better in some ways, the other is better in other ways, and neither is better overall.

What is risky decision?

When people take risks, they engage in behaviors that could have negative consequences, such as physical injury, social rejection, legal troubles, or financial losses. Behaviors more likely to lead to such outcomes are regarded as riskier than behaviors less likely to lead to such outcomes.

How To Make Hard Choices & Risky Decisions
How To Make Hard Choices & Risky Decisions

The long-term impact of deciding your heart and soul is where your best life comes from because you live for what is true for you and not what is safe now.

You will never know if your choice was the best one possible. There is no time machine or a future machine to help you make decisions for the long term. The best you can do is what feels right and what makes you happy.

Hard choices are complicated because there are no best options.

When you come upon a difficult life choice, think about who you will become when you choose one. Use that to inform your choice rather than the options’ qualities.

One of the key factors in making hard choices is accepting that uncertainty is inevitable. No decision comes with a guarantee of success or failure. Instead of striving for certainty, we must learn to tolerate ambiguity and trust our ability to adapt to whatever outcome arises.

This acceptance of uncertainty empowers us to move forward with courage, even when the path ahead is unclear.

Risky decisions, in particular, embody this concept of embracing uncertainty. They involve venturing into the unknown, taking calculated gambles, and stepping outside our comfort zones.

While the prospect of failure may be daunting, it’s often through taking risks that we achieve our greatest successes. Whether it’s starting a business, pursuing a passion project, or exploring a new adventure, risky decisions have the potential to lead to transformative experiences and profound growth.

However, it’s essential to differentiate between reckless impulsivity and informed risk-taking. While the former may lead to disastrous consequences, the latter involves careful evaluation of potential outcomes and mitigation of potential pitfalls. It’s about being proactive in managing risk rather than succumbing to it blindly.

Moreover, making hard choices and risky decisions requires resilience in the face of adversity. Setbacks and obstacles are inevitable, but it’s how we respond to them that ultimately determines our trajectory.

Instead of viewing failure as a final outcome, we should see it as a valuable learning opportunity. Every setback teaches us something new about ourselves and our abilities, ultimately strengthening our resolve to persevere.

It’s also crucial to seek guidance and support when navigating hard choices and risky decisions.

Consulting with trusted mentors, friends, or professionals can provide valuable insights and perspectives that we may have overlooked. Additionally, surrounding ourselves with a supportive network of individuals who believe in our potential can bolster our confidence and resilience.

Successful people make decisions quickly and change them slowly. Unsuccessful people make decisions slowly and change them quickly!

Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich.

How To Make Hard Choices & Risky Decisions

This is a guest post written by Peter G. James Sinclair of MotivationalMemo.

The Definition of safety: The condition of being protected from or unlikely to cause danger, risk, or injury. A perspective defines security. What you see as safe may appear to be dangerous to another.  Safety is also determined by experience.

Even though the choice is supposed to bring us freedom and autonomy, having too many options doesn’t benefit us psychologically.

And even if you fail to make good choices, it’s not the end of the world! You can still make them work for you. This is also known as “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”

If you have traversed a particular path and achieved success, you are more confident of repeating the process than if you had never tried it before. In the reverse arena of unsafe, the same observations apply.

But the fact is that if we never push out from the shore, never venture far into the jungles, and never dare to climb the mountain; we will never know the possibilities.

This is why we, as potential explorers, must step into dangerous territories, or else we will be labeled mediocre and ordinary. I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t born for that. You and I were born for significance and all things extraordinary.

So allow me to show you how you can still make risky decisions yet soar.

How To Make Risky Decisions

“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” – Theodore Roosevelt

Below are my rules for making risky decisions.

1. Refuse To Play Safe

To play safe is always by the rules, do as told, follow, lead, and perform as instructed. Sorry, but I’ve always had somewhat aversion to rules and somewhat of a rebel brewing below the surface.

That’s why I grew my hair long as a teenager. That’s why I persisted with my piano education throughout my teenage years. I didn’t take up smoking like many of my peers.

That’s why I didn’t experiment with drugs. That’s why I have always professed my faith openly. That’s why I went into business while others landed the job. That’s why I only follow leaders who are leading me somewhere.

That’s why I vote the way I vote. That’s why I lead the life I live. That’s why I start impossible ventures with no skills in the industries I choose but instead believe in my belief that I will and can achieve. I refuse to play safe and encourage you to do the same.

2. Get Uncomfortable

When I am uncomfortable, that’s when I get creative. Comfort is for those who want to rest awhile. Uncomfort – I just made up that word – is for those who want to reach further, stretch farther, and go far beyond their capabilities and possibilities.

I love the smell of fire. With smoke in my nostrils, it creates an environment requiring solutions. I love it when I get out of my depth – because then I must learn to either swim or attach myself to a vessel that will carry me to my dreams.

Problems? Love them. Here is another chance for magnificence to be unveiled.

3. Risk Failure

Whenever I ran onto the field as a young man to play a sport, there was the possibility of one of two results; win or loss. Did that stop me from playing?

Never.

If we ever lost a game, we would return to practice in the coming week to improve our skills and be better positioned to win the next time we played.

To live is to risk failure. To start a business is to risk failure. To write a blog is to risk failure. To get married and have children is to risk failure.

But why do we fear failure so much? Fail more, and you will place yourself in a beautiful arena where winning will be your portion.

4. Dance With Danger

I use the word dance to signify that we should have fun. I love dancing with my wife, and after being married for nearly three decades, I often find myself dancing with her in the kitchen more than usual.

Treat danger with the same respect, but dance with her. In dancing with a partner, I always take the lead, guiding the movement of the steps and the direction of the waltz.

So when you dance with danger, take charge and guide her where you wish to go and the results you want as a direct result of the dance. The directed risk will lead to construction, while misdirected danger will lead to destruction.

And whatever you do, don’t run from danger. Embrace her. For those who engage in risk and refuse to yield to the spirit of fear associated with the D, the word will not fail but soar. What unsafe decisions are you about to make this week?

Motivational Memo: Face danger fearlessly and embrace your destiny and learn to make risky decisions you won’t regret.

Peter’s Short Profile:

About Guest Author: Peter G. James Sinclair is in the ‘heart to heart’ resuscitation business and inspires, motivates and equips others to be all that they’ve been created to become. 

Conclusion

Making hard choices and risky decisions is an inherent part of the human experience. While these decisions may be daunting, they also offer us the opportunity for growth, self-discovery, and fulfillment.

By embracing uncertainty, cultivating resilience, and seeking support when needed, we can navigate even the most challenging decisions with grace and courage.

Remember, it’s not the decision itself that defines us, but rather how we choose to respond to the challenges it presents.

⇒Read Next: You Don’t Need Motivation to Reach Your Goals

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