How To Go After What You Love In Life & Mitigate

The Risk
December 22, 2015 by Jonathon Twiz.

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In the animal kingdom both prey and predator have to take risks to survive. There is no
comfort zone that allows for sustained security. For example, wild rodents must
leave the safety of their den to forage for food with the knowledge that they could come
across predators. Yet they are equally aware that if they stay in their den they will starve;
a risk must be taken to get what they need to survive.
Predators such as leopards, on the other hand, also have to take risks when hunting
prey. Many of the prey they hunt, such as baboons and wild boar, are equipped with
dangerous horns, teeth, and other evolutionary tools used for self-defense. When
pursuing these animals, the leopard risks serious injury every time it hunts; fatal injuries
which could prevent it from hunting and nurturing its young must be carefully considered
during each hunt. Mothers must risk having their offspring eaten by predators or rival
males every time they leave their young to go get food. If the leopard chooses not to

hunt it will starve, so it once again has no choice but to take risks. Animals that survive
these risks and become more adept at successfully taking them evolve.

The message of this article isnt that we live in an every man for himself, dog eat dog
world, but rather, that we live in a world where we have to take a chance on ourselves to
get what we want out of life. Many people in challenging positions often give up on their
dreams, mitigating risks to settle for what is safe. This is practical if your fear of falling
below the status quo is stronger than your desire to be fulfilled. But if your desire to be
more free and live life with more meaning and fulfillment is strong, then you have to think
about what you are prepared to do to go after what you want in life. Chasing meaning
is better than avoiding discomfort, as Kelly McGonigal would say.
For the free spirit, this is the evolution of survival. As the middle class is shrinking, the
crumbs left for a decent fulfilling life are getting smaller and smaller. Most people will
accept this blithely, taking what they can, living how they can, accepting that the world is
the way it is, trying to stay in line and live as theyre told. This can be absolutely soul
crushing to the free spirit. You deserve more, you want more, and youre willing to work
hard for it given the right opportunity, but how do you attain it?
The free spirit isnt a cog in the wheel but a person who values living an authentic life.
Having no choice but to make money to survive, finding a balance between passion and
making a living is a delicate endeavor. Your soul yearns to do something meaningful and
fulfilling, but you have grown used to the cubicle life. And it is killing you inside. Whether
its going back to school, working in a new field of your choice, starting a business, or
embarking on a new project or artistic endeavor, the decision to take a leap into

something new is always daunting. If youre in this position you may be unsure if it will
work out the way you envisioned. Will I make enough money? Are the actual day-to-day
activities of the new career going to drain or burn me out? Any career change involves a
step into daunting unknown territory.
If youre still poor at 35 you deserve it. No matter what one does, regardless of failure
or success, the experience is a form of success in itself. You have got to keep trying.
Jack Ma, founder of alibaba.com
The above quote might sound rather harsh but I would agree that if you have ever
wanted more than what your current lifestyle provides but were too afraid to take the
leap of faith in yourself, rather than to say you deserve it, as Jack Ma would put it, I
think its fair to say that you should at least take responsibility for it. It is never too late to
invest in yourself and chart your own course.
So many of us chose our path out of fear disguised as practicality because what we
want is impossibly out of reach and ridiculous to expect so we never dare to ask the
Universe for it. Jim Carrey
The first hexagram of the I Ching, the creative principal, urges one to forcefully follow
through with their ambitions. There is no yielding or weakness as Creation cannot
manifest without the strong will of the visionary. The Creative does not flow to those who
settle for less than what they envisioned. One must be purposeful, determined, and
unwavering in their ambitions.
The pitfalls of failure are valid reasons for fear but for every objection there is an answer.
The more challenging the problem, the more work required to obtain the solution. Often
peoples dreams are not on par with their desire to obtain solutions. The reality is that
the obstacle IS the path. What you will encounter and go through on your journey is
what you need to reveal your true nature. Your true nature is the realization of your
positive characteristics and your negative characteristics. It is the realization of
everything holding you back and everything moving you forward. It is the realization of
the illusion you have brought on yourself as to why you cant get what you want. Living
fully through your true nature will translate into all areas of your life, especially when it
comes to making a living.

What will other people think of me if I fail?

This is one of the biggest obstacles that hold people back from taking a chance on
themselves worrying about what friends and family will think if they fall behind. The
irony is that the ego makes ambitious people want to get ahead of the herd, yet at the
same time makes them fearful of falling behind it. Intense desires to get ahead and fear
of falling behind can be detrimental when taken to extremes. Despite the diversity of
environments people are raised in, a commonality we share is that we often allow other
people and society as a whole to mold us into who we are, out of a need to feel
accepted or above the pack.
That isnt the most authentic way to live; it is rather a conditioned dream state of living
ones life. Revisit your true self and make decisions from your center. Its okay to seek
advice and opinions from friends and family but they shouldnt be the primary catalyst in
your decision making process to change your life. You are a conscious being with needs
and desires, going through a human experience in this life-time. The rest of the world
has little concern for your journey and what fulfills you on your path to freedom,
fulfillment, happiness, etc. Some people, like friends and family, may truly want what
THEY THINK is best for you, projecting their expectations of what you should do to be a

part of an ideal member of the family or circle of friends. Some people may shut you
down and tell you to do whats perceived as practical, which is what the majority is
doing. If you fail, some people will no longer associate with you, and thats okay,
because the ones who remain are the ones who really count.
Through this process you may need to let go of people who no longer resonate with
your true self. As you proceed, the Universe will reward you for being you and the right
people will stay in your life and the new right people will come into your life. You will
eventually be surrounded by people who inspire you. You will also be around people
who see your vision or are pursuing the same endeavors, moving up the mountain
together with those who resonate with you. The only thing you will see at the top of the
mountain is what you bring. Let go of your fears, insecurities, and heavy baggage, and
the ascent will be much smoother.
This is the best thing you could do for yourself. Taking a risk to do what you are
passionate about is one of lifes most rewarding challenges. Through this process you
will learn a lot about yourself, which will lead you to a level of self mastery that few
people in this world attain. The most challenging thing in life that you will ever face is
You, thats it! Your ego will get in the way of much of what you are meant to have. Self
doubt, self pity, procrastination, arrogance, ignorance, impatience, callousness,
inconstancy all of these things need to be addressed as you work toward your goals.
There needs to be a little drill sergeant/Zen master inside of you keeping you on top of
things. Always work as hard as you play. By that same token, dont forget to play as hard
as you work. Take your ambitions seriously, but not to the point where you are no longer
present and enjoying being alive.
Those who are up for the challenge become who they are meant to be, and those who
give up on themselves stop walking that path entirely settling for another lifestyle,
another identity that feels more secure and accepted but is less authentic, less in tune
with what drives and motivates them. We lose grip on reality while reality grips us. We
put down our tools and we decide we will no longer be the architects of our reality,
forfeiting our power to external circumstances that we call reality but are nothing more
than excuses, allowing this external reality to chisel us into shape. Through invocation
you realize the external circumstances that you have used to validate why you have not
achieved your goal are a disguise of the true source of your defeat a lack of

confidence in yourself. You feel like the odds are stacked against you and you forfeit. Or
you feel like the task is too challenging to commit to, so again, you forfeit.
You have to be honest with yourself before you give up on something. Ask yourself,
what could I have done better? What shouldnt I have done that would have made it
better? Then you begin to realize all the times you werent consistent, all the times you
gave up on the first few tries, or all the times you ignored critical advice from other
people who were doing it right. You recall each instance where you tried to reinvent the
wheel and every stupid decision you have ever made. For some people, instead of
collecting these experiences as Gems of Wisdom, they are received as confidence
crushing experiences.
Failure is an opportunity. If you blame someone else, there is no end to the blame.
Therefore the Master fulfills ones own obligations and corrects ones own mistakes. One
does what is needed to do and demands nothing of others. Lao Tzu
There may also be external circumstances beyond your control that make you feel like
the odds are stacked against you vs. other players in the game. All men [and women]
are created equal thats what it says on paper, but there are unspoken realities
which arent in the manual. Fairness and equality are like two cars at the starting line
ready to go from zero to 60 as fast as they can to win the race. The fairness is that they
are both beginning at the same location and time, yet one car is a Ferrari and the other
is a rusty 1982 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera.
Sometimes the game might feel like its rigged and it causes many to give up with a
whats the point perspective. I sympathize with this but I still cant agree with it. If life
sucks for you and you want more, then why settle for a crummy life? Instead of giving
up, why not dedicate your life toward fighting to get out of that situation? Why not go
after what you deserve instead of succumbing to the reality that stifles your radiance?
The smartest people I know are successful people who didnt come from privilege. They
are the most out of the box lateral thinkers I know. When the system doesnt work for
you, sometimes you have to find creative ways through and or around it to get where
you want to be, but with enough dedication, there is a way. Lateral thinkers dont confine
themselves to rigid standard procedures, they are fluid, like water, adapting and
adjusting to any circumstance, yet steadily carving out their own path.

Dont pray for an easy life, pray to have the strength to endure a difficult one. Bruce
Lee
On the other hand, very legitimate reasons can come into play with regard to forgoing
your passions. Having kids is one of the most reasonable, equally rewarding and
fulfilling life circumstances that can take the dreamer out of his/her dream. There are a
whole host of unforeseen events that can force someone to become completely selfless,
putting away their own ambitions to take care of the life of another. If you have found
yourself in this position but still have the spark of your previous ambition inside you, you
may want to begin looking into ways you can steadily chip away at it in the most
practical method that wont disrupt the balance of your familys livelihood.
Giving up on a pursuit isnt necessarily giving up on yourself. Going back to what you
dont like or what you think is safe is what giving up on yourself really looks like. When
leaving a pursuit that didnt work out, one must still continue to search and find what is
right for them, rather than going back to the status quo because it is the safe bet.
When you do what you are passionate about, you will do what resonates with you. You
will then put your best energy into your pursuit, therefore adding value to that pursuit
and the collective that sees value in it. This is what it means to do what you are meant
to do. You are fulfilling the reason for your existence by channeling your energy into your
passions. Even through hard times the lessons you learn along the way will be very eye
opening and rewarding to your personal development. Have faith that the Universe will
reward you for being you. When you abandon what fulfills you, and you decide to settle
for a less then optimal vocation, you are not aligning yourself with the Universe. On that
path, hard times will be more frustrating, as they offer little value to your personal
development other than to tell you that you should probably start changing direction.
Risk

When taking a new direction in life one has to assess what will or could be lost in
comparison to what will and could be gained. A further assessment of how much one
values what will or could be lost in comparison to how much one values what could and
will be gained is calculated into the decision. Finally, the likelihood of loss or gain is a
major deterrent or encouraging element of the decision making process. Thinking too
much of the extreme outcomes on either end can hinder you in different ways. Some
people focus too much on the probability of what could be gained, being short sighted of
what could be lost, leading one to make rash and impulsive choices. Others focus
entirely on what could be lost and remain too afraid to make a move, which leads to
stagnation and rigid thinking. Only you can decide what risks are worth taking (or not). A
simple awareness and acceptance of how things could play out in either direction is a
significant step toward differentiating yourself from timidness and recklessness.
So what if the risk you take doesnt pay off?

Dan Kennedy, one of Americas most intelligent entrepreneurs, once said I have a lot of
expensive experience. Through his journey of becoming a successful marketer, he has
lost a ton of money to entrepreneurial endeavors in the beginning of his career. Many of
the worlds most successful people have gone through dismal failure(s) before
becoming successful. And Im not saying this to make you feel better if you have failed.
The point is to understand that successful people not only learn from their mistakes, but
also have the confidence and consistency to pick themselves up again and charge
forward. Use your losses to build your wisdom and continue to move forward. Thats
how you suffer successfully. Success is not built on success. Its built on failure. Its
built on frustration. Sometimes its built on catastrophe. Sumner Redstone.
For those of you who play or have played video games, there is always a time when a
player gets stuck on a difficult level. The player dies over and over again, but each time
you get back in the game you have a little more knowledge of what to look out for and
what to take advantage of in that level. Eventually, after enough trial and error, you pass
the level and move on with the game of life. Thats pretty much how people get shit
done. You can give up and quit, choose a new game to play and start all over from

scratch, or you can keep mastering the game youre already playing. As long as your
heart is still in it, you will eventually pass the difficult levels in life.
Nothing worth pursuing in life comes easy. If you want to create extraordinary things
then you will have to have to take extraordinary steps to do it, as well as have an
extraordinary commitment to it. Believing you have a strong locus of control is a key
quality of anyone who wishes to bring their own ideas and visions into reality.
The last thing I want to leave you with is a series of some of my favourite quotes.