I have a question for you that might hit kind of hard, depending on your expectations. Is what you’re willing to risk for your dreams equivalent to the reward you expect to get from them?
If you’ve never thought about that, it’s something you should seriously consider. If you are not willing to take big risks, you can’t expect big rewards.
I’m not much of a gambler in the literal sense. I occasionally buy a lotto ticket, but I’m not much fun in a Casino. I’ll sit on a penny machine, bored out of my mind for all of five minutes, because I’m not willing to risk much money hoping to win.
In those instances, I don’t expect to win so I don’t risk much. I’m certainly not interested in risking my life’s savings or my time, because there’s no real expectation of being rewarded. Now, of course, there’s a little, tiny, itty bitty slither of hope that I’ll put a penny in a machine and win a MIL, but I certainly don’t expect that.
On the other hand, you have those gamblers who are willing to risk it all — their homes, their marriages, their jobs, their entire lives — because they expect to hit that jackpot one day. They sit in Casinos for hours or even days hoping to strike it rich.
Of course you have much better odds of accomplishing the loftiest goals you can imagine than getting rich in a Casino, but the thought process is the same. When you have big dreams and you expect big rewards, you have to be willing to risk it all.
To clarify, I’m not saying you should put your house on the line or jeopardize the safety of your children for your dream. What I’m saying is that you can’t take small actions and expect big results.
If you want to win big, you’ve got to put all of your effort into winning. You’ve got to play the game full speed with everything you’ve got, giving it your absolute all.
It’s great to dream big. In fact, I encourage you too. If you’re a big dreamer, be a big action taker. Be willing to get out of your comfort zone regularly enough to grow as a person. Make your dreams a priority in your life and be realistic about what you expect to get from the effort you’re actually putting in.
If you aren’t willing to risk much, then consider yourself me at the penny machine in the Casino — don’t expect much of a reward.