Career: Playing it Safe or Taking Risks?

Your parents want you to snag a secure job and stay settled for the rest of your life. Avoiding danger, avoiding change, avoiding growth. What is a secure life? When all we want to do is to just work in the office from 9-5 and go home and then play some golf and then go back home, sleep, and repeat the cycle indefinitely. That is a secure life. Job, family, and comfort. Your life is a routine you follow everyday, and nothing happens differently. It is so easy to go home, eat comfortable food, read the paper, sit in a chair, and watch TV. That is because everyone has been doing it for decades.

But won’t it kill your soul? Won’t you be upset that you could have been something more than what you are right now? Humans crave stability and security, and they fear change, even though neither truly exist. Even the wealthiest can go bankrupt, the healthiest can get sick, and the happiest people can get depressed. You may consciously know that the actions you are undertaking now can put you at risk, but deep inside there is a voice that tells you that everything that doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. You know this and you even believe this to a certain level. It is always very tempting to want something that you get easily, but it takes effort to pull out from your comfort zone and do something challenging.

• We were always told not to be too brave or too bold. It’s too dangerous. Like joining the army or getting into politics. You don’t want to draw too much unnecessary attention to yourself. Don’t take risks. Play it safe.
• We have overemphasized the importance of personal security. Keeping the stable job which does not offer much growth or being in a relationship that lacks passion, only because a little risk, a little change scares you. You are happy and satisfied on the outside, but deep inside your soul has stopped growing, it is dying because you’ve gotten too comfortable.
• But how would you live if you had no fear at all? It is important to be scared and what is more important is to pull all your guts together and climb over wall, the safety wall you built around yourself. The wall insulates you from all fears: unhappy marriage, an unchallenging job, a comfortable income, a stagnant life. You avoid the thrill now and you will be nagging about the mediocrity of your life until you die.
• Raise your consciousness. Have the courage to confront your fears. Keep pushing. Get rid of the routine, you can’t keep doing the same things over and over again. Give your life a kick, get a goal to chase, have some uncertainties and insecurities, and rise above them all. Avoiding danger is not safe in the long run. Don’t be a time slave, you are much more than you think you are. Help yourself grow into an amazing human being.

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.