Typically I write my blog first, and then find a photo to support the content. This time, I was looking through my archives and found this photo of the sky. I love the photo, and what immediately popped to mind was, “The sky’s the limit!” This thought would not let me go, as if there were something it wanted me to say. So I’m coming at this topic from a slightly different angle than previous posts. I didn’t pick this topic; it picked me.

So often, when life feels expansive and things are going great, we hear people excitedly exclaim, “The sky’s the limit!” While many of us would agree that this is theoretically true, most of us have had experiences where it definitely did not seem that way. The longer I coach people, and the longer I live life, the more convinced I am that the truly accurate exclamation is not “The sky’s the limit!” but, “Your mind’s the limit!”

Being a coach, I spend a lot of time with people who are trying to get from “here” to “there.” And what I have learned is that success is not dictated by how far away or exotic “there” is, nor how much people do to get “there.” Success is defined and dictated by how someone thinks about “getting there” and then, “being there.”  And much of that has to do with how people assess the risks of the journey.

The conventional definition of risk is “the possibility that something unpleasant or unwelcome could happen.” I’ve noticed in my very successful clients, not that they take crazy risks, but that they reframe risk this way:

-If risk is the possibility that something unpleasant could happen, it is equally the possibility that something wonderful could happen.

-They know when they have maxed out their interest in a job or their usefulness and fulfillment in a workplace. They can feel and accept when something has come to an end.

-They consider it a bigger risk to stay put in a situation that is over, than it is to step into a broader, more expansive unknown. They care more about growing and living, less about safeguarding what they have done, been, or had in the past. To them, the risk of languishing in a “safe” job is a risk they are not willing to take.

-They understand that although we may try to deceive ourselves, there are no guarantees in life. The known may feel safe, but it is not necessarily a given.

-They do not allow themselves to be ensnared by “golden handcuffs.” They consider the cost too high.

These reframes allow the successful coaching client to launch into a more expansive set of circumstances. Something in them allows for the possibility that leaving a job or organization that is “over” for them might be fantastic.

Bottom line about risks:  it matters what you think.