On Taking Calculated Risks
“Study the situation thoroughly, go over in your imagination the various courses of action possible to you and the consequences which can and may follow from each course. Pick out the course which gives the most promise—and go ahead. If we wait until we are absolutely certain and sure before we act we will never do anything. Any time you act you can be wrong. Any decision you make can turn out to be the wrong one. But we must not let this deter us from going after the goal we want.”
What Dr. Maxwell Maltz said above and below is something I can totally relate to. Many times in my life I’ve taken actions (not without risks!) and there had been moments I got them right but many times wrong too. In the beginning when I was younger, I often felt guilty, terrible, and miserable, but as I grow older I realize those experiences actually add to my “Experience Bank.” Although it was only in my late twenties I began to see the point, I was already a risk-taker right when I was young.
Once in a while the feeling of regret for the mistakes I made still creeps in, but now I know better to acknowledge it and then just nip it in the bud! Onward but with good reasoning, due diligence, and calculated risk.
“You must daily have the courage to risk making mistakes, risk failure, risk being humiliated. A step in the wrong direction is better than staying “on the spot” all your life. Once you’re moving forward you can correct your course as you go. Your automatic guidance system cannot guide you when you’re stalled, standing still.”
