Taking Chances

This blog title reminded me very much of a Celine Dion song with the same name and the chorus goes:  

What do you say to taking chances?
What do you say to jumping off the edge?
Never knowing if there's solid ground below,
Or a hand to hold, or hell to pay,
What do you say?
What do you say?

What does ‘taking chances’ mean to you? I like looking at it as seizing and making the most of opportunities as they present themselves i.e. carpe diem!

When I decided to embark on my long-time ambition to be a coach, I pretty much had my plans laid out. One of the items on my plans was to launch my website. However, when it was ready, I contemplated if I should broadcast it to the world or not. Basically, I thought to myself, I’ve updated my Linkedin profile with all the details, that should suffice right? I was consumed by the fear of judgement that comes with putting myself out there and was paralysed. 

So, I brought this situation to my coach who asked if I believe in taking chances. Reflecting on my life, I had taken a chance when I left the corporate world to start my own coaching practice; I also took a chance on love and relocated. Therefore, yes, I do believe in taking chances!

A deeper realisation from this was that launching my website wasn’t so much about me taking chances on myself but asking others to take a chance on me. Recalling my career journey, while on my part I thought I was taking a chance from being a scientist to being a marketer, my employers were also taking a chance of hiring a scientist to be a marketer. When I relocated from Malaysia to the UK, my first UK employer took a chance on me, a marketer without consulting experience. I initiated these circumstances by putting myself out to them, asking for the opportunity to work together.

This realisation almost felt like a slap in my face. How can I fulfil my purpose to inspire others to live their full potential if I don’t realise mine? How can I achieve my vision of a world filled with empowered individuals authentically living their best lives if I don’t tell the world so? How can I carry out my mission of advocating personal transformation through intentional conversations if I don’t put myself out there? 

So, yes, announcing the launch of my website was absolutely necessary.

When I published the launch of my website on LinkedIn, I realised that my fear was gratuitous. Not only did I receive kind and encouraging words aplenty from my network, I also signed on a new client in that first week of launch! 

To quote James Hetfield, "I'd rather regret doing something than not doing something."