“Attempting to avoid disappointment in life is the surest way to live a disappointing life.”

Do you ever find yourself attempting to avoid disappointments in life? I do. All the time.

I hate risk. I love security. I don’t want bad stuff to happen. None of us do.

The interesting thing is that when I avoid risk and attempt to hold too tightly to what I have, I am inviting long-term disappointment.

Think about the great moments in your life or the lives of those you admire. Were there risks associated with getting to those mountain top moments? In my life, all the greatest stuff has happened when I took a risk. Here are a few of my moments. I hope they will help you reflect on your own “good risks” and help you (and me) to continue to take the “good risks” required to live a great life.

Travel & Adventure: In my younger days, I was able to travel to a lot of neat places. I couldn’t always find people to go with me. Rather than skip the adventure I often went on my own. I traveled to Tanzania on my own and spent a month there volunteering before some friends showed up and did some adventuring with me. I was in San Diego for a conference and decided to make the drive to Ensenada, Mexico, because I loved Lyle Lovett’s song “The Road to Ensenada.” I went climbing in Joshua Tree National Park, climbed Grand Teton and Kilimanjaro. Not a lot of risk compared to many, but things that caused my heart rate to rise and led to some great memories.

Asking The Girl Out: Or boy, depending on your situation. Nothing ever paralyzed me more than the fear of being rejected when asking a girl out. Oh the dread of dialing the number, rehearsing what to say, or, even worse, waiting for them to call you back. Thank God, I asked Jill out over 10 years ago and she said Yes! The greatest adventure of my life could have been aborted if I had not taken the risk to ask Jill to go out with me and then to spend her life with me.

Quit The Job / Start The Business: My advice to others has changed a lot since starting my business over 10 years ago. Rather than just leaving your job and starting from scratch, I now suggest less risky options for others. But where would I be today if I hadn’t made that leap of faith over 10 years ago? God used (and still uses) all that fear and anxiety of starting and running something on your own to draw me to Him. I know my prayer life and faith would be a fraction of what it is today if I hadn’t taken the risk and jumped into that fire.

Writing & Speaking: I found both were required to build the business of my dreams, but both scared me to death. Standing in front of a crowd so you can forget what you had to say or say something foolish – what a nightmare! Putting your thoughts into writing so the whole world can tell you how wrong you are? Both petrified me and sometimes still do, but it feels a lot better to walk into those fears rather than avoid them.

Kids: This one is big for me because last week we welcomed Owen Peter, our fifth child, into our family. Praise God Jill and Owen are doing great. But there can be a ton of fear and anxiety around deciding to have another child. Questions like – “Can we afford them?” “What if something goes wrong?” could have easily convinced us to stick with four, but God nudged us to have a fifth. Having a fifth child could be considered a big risk, but could we imagine our lives without Owen? No way.