There’s no greater danger than playing it safe.

That was the tagline of Nike’s “Risk everything” World Cup campaign. Risking everything means that you have nothing to lose, when you have nothing to lose you have no fear in your actions. Fear and beliefs of our own limitations, are what’s stopping us from becoming the best version of ourselves.

To reach our full potential we need to know deep inside that we’re worth it. We’re worth living that extraordinary life with plenty of love, laughter and happiness. We also need to diminish our fear and become less risk adverse to pursue our dreams. Following our dreams isn’t easy – then everyone would do it. And what’s stopping us is fear: fear of failing, fear of not getting a paycheck, fear of letting other people down etc. What I’ve come to realize during these past couple of months is that the way we tend to perceive safety usually isn’t really accurate. I’ve thought that having a stable life (a job, an apartment, a boyfriend etc.) would mean that I’m “safe”. However, the person we’re in a relationship with can decide to leave us, our apartment can get burned down and we can get fired from our job. Even though we know that these things can happen, we find it difficult to leave the “safe” environment and go into the unknown. And it’s in the unknown the magic happens.

Someone once told me to think about my greatest fear in this change I want to make. I said that it would be to end up on the streets without any money. Then he told me to live my fear – to imagine myself actually being on the streets without any money. Where would I be? What would I do? How would I feel? After mentally going through living one night on the streets, I realized that it wasn’t so bad. Of course it wasn’t an ideal situation, but if this was the worst thing that could happen I can totally do it. Letting go of fear isn’t easy, but when you do it sets you free.

 

“There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living” – Nelson Mandela