Do you find yourself putting off taking action? This may mean that you are at the cusp of taking a risk and the action is scaring you. It is very typical to stall out as you look a big goal head-on. Although, taking educated risks is the heart of building wealth and the quicker you become comfortable with it, the better off you will be. Here are some tips on how to handle moving forward and taking necessary risks.
- Make smaller mistakes and then build.This is the best way to get used to making mistakes. Start making decisions that involve a small amount of risk. Since taking the biggest risk of my life and moving to Denver to start a business and finding myself responding to the anxiety and stress of this risk the same way as I always have – with more stress. I have realized there is a lot of value in starting smaller. This year I made a goal of getting better at public speaking path and my first step forward was joining a local Toastmasters and taking advantage of their impromptu speaking in the beginning of the event. You are asked a random question on the spot and you have to learn to answer as clearly and proficiently in two minutes. Joining Toastmasters put me in the position to start working on my public speaking and make plenty of mistakes on the way.
- Reframe mistakes as lessons. But here is the secret, these mistakes that I was making at Toastmasters, weren’t REALLY mistakes, they were more like learning opportunities over and over. Take the time to learn from these mistakes. In the beginning of Toastmasters, I found myself saying a lot of filler words, such as “um” and self-soothing. Each week, when it was my turn to speak, I made a goal of ONE less “um” as the previous week.
- Support. Once I got better at the impromptu speaking, I realized I need more help that Toastmasters might be able to offer. It was then that I decided to hire a public speaking coach to offer me individualized help and support. In an addition to a coach, you can ask a mentor, friend or family member to hold you accountable. As a real estate agent, I also find my role is to act as a coach for my clients through the home buying and selling process.
- Create a hard deadline. With the guidance of my public speaking coach, we chose a date to have my very first speech booked and completed. This helped me stop procrastinating and jump right into public speaking.
- Check in. The final step would be checking in with yourself. How did that feel? Invigorating? Terrifying? This step ensures that you don’t bite off more than you can take on (something I am notorious at doing examples, include, moving to Denver and starting a business, joining BOTH Toastmasters and a public speaking coach, buying rentals that need work when I have no extra time, the list goes on….).
Challenging yourself is hard and each new level of yourself requires more work and challenges. What risk are you shying away from? There is no risk too small or too big. If you are putting off buying that home, you are luck because I can happily step into the support role for this goal. Start your search here.
Liz is broker and owner of Liz Daigle Realty.
