I think that there’s an admirable point here whereby one has to take a Leap of Faith.   The comedian Steve Harvey has the same sensibility saying that you take a leap and, hitting the cliff on the way down taking your bruises, then you land well.   

I went through all the times that I’ve taken a Leap of Faith both big and small, making a list.  In this way, I could actually say to myself:  "Whoa, you’ve done this a whole bunch."

 A lot more than I gave myself credit for.  And by coming up with a good long list, even times when it didn’t work, then I could realize more and more that I’m actually pretty good at it.  

Figure Your Batting Average

In getting some perspective, I keep thinking about baseball players and their batting averages.  I am not a baseball person big fan.  But I watched a cool documentary on the game.  A good batting average for a Major League Baseball player is .300 which translates to a 30% batting average.  

So what is your average?  Figure it out and realize that - perhaps even hitting 20-30% of an average - you are still far ahead of the game.  Come up with the losses too.  I realized that my losses were challenging to remember.  But those victories were very good and I could build on those victories over the years and on projects and for my skills. 

Exercise for Risk Taking

I challenge you take take 20 minutes to write down risk and rewards on a piece of paper. Be honest. Good risks that paid off. Risks that you lost.

You can then create your own new Identity even with a qualifying component: “I am a Risk Taker.” With the list above, you will realize that you already are a Risk Taker - and better at it than you remembered.