While browsing through the blog of my friend Dana I came across the following sentence “It was then I understood that what it means risky for most of people can be just a matter of preparation and project management for others”.

This was a good reminder that risk is something different for each one of us and that we have different approaches to risk handling.

So what is a risk?

The Oxford English Dictionary had a pretty good definition:

(Exposure to) the possibility of loss, injury, or other adverse or unwelcome circumstance; a chance or situation involving such a possibility.

How do we handle risks ?

Somehow we have learned to live being constantly confronted with risks. We learned to filter all kinds of risks as long as they don’t seem probable to us. With growing experience we adapt these filters.

Earthquakes for example happen very rarely where I live and I hardly ever think about such a probability. A few years ago, my brother lived in Istanbul and happened to live through an earthquake. Somehow, even though this experience was fearful he was prepared. In an environment like Istanbul earthquakes belong to the reality of the people and most know what they are supposed to do in such an event.

How to take risks ?

It’s natural to adapt oneself in order to avoid loss, injury or anything unwelcome. What we often don’t realize is that we learned to be prepared. It is a capacity we can also use in other situations, we can assess the upcoming risks, we can prepare decisions, we can learn which skills will be needed, we can decide the risks we’ll take and put these decisions into action.

Just as Dana described we can learn to prepare ourselves.

When we see others accomplish great endeavors, we admire them for their courage and wonder how they can take such risks.

In fact we usually see only to tip of the iceberg!

We only see the result.

We usually miss out on the planing, preparation, fears and hopes. For me it’s the most impressive part, it’s fascinating to see how hard adventurers prepare, how they make sure that they can be comfortable with the risk they are taking as well as how detailed their preparation is. That’s when the proverb “the journey is its own reward” comes true.

Sebastien Montaz-Rosset has a way to show this in this amazing video. Have a look

See how you can make your dreams come true … even if you don’t want to fly?

[Original publication via frogstalk.com, Dec 16, 2012]