Risk Attitude? How to Become a Less Risk-Averse Person…

Risk Attitude? How to Become a Less Risk-Averse Person…

🔥NEW In today’s dynamic and ever-changing economy, the times of having a secured job for the rest of your life are past. All of us now need to make choices regularly that will influence our life and career path. Living a safe life does not mean to do the things the way they’ve always been done anymore. Actually, doing nothing in today's times of uncertainty could actually be more risky than not taking chances at all. So risk-taking is nowadays more and more a critical factor for success.

But not all people are natural-born risk-takers. And there are many factors that influence the degree to which we are taking risks and are acting rational or irrational. Past experiences, emotional histories and cultural factors all play a role.
Giang (2017) describes 3 ways to make yourself more comfortable with taking a chance. According to her, you can control (to a certain extent) the psychological responses that hinder you from taking chances by overcoming certain psychological issues. Here are some techniques to make yourself more comfortable with taking risks:

1. SILENCE THE MIND: This refers to training methods that learns one to focus on the present. Those techniques can help you to prevent rethinking your mistakes and worries (brain chatter). Living a healthy lifestyle and being mindful are said to control and lower (among others) adrenaline and cortisol levels, which in turn reduce the amount of stress you perceive with taking risks.
2. ENGAGE THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND: Many agree that a large part of our mental activity is unconscious. You should take the time to let your subconscious mind become active through napping, resting or even adopting a persona.
3. REMOVE CATASTROPHIC THINKING: one of the greatest challenges is to conquer bad memories with previously taken risks. Most of this type of thinking originates from the fear of being out of control; of being afraid of what’s coming next. It may help to think about possible positive outcomes, but also to write down bad irrational thoughts and to reflect on those thoughts. Summing up all worst-case scenarios might make you feel more in control over the situation.

Above techniques are by no means an attempt to say that one should take every possible risk that passes. Rather they are about training your brain to deal with uncertainty and risky situations in a better way. They can be helpful to constantly remind yourself of the fact that risk-taking is needed nowadays to progress, to innovate.

⇒ What is your opinion about risk-taking in business and in your personal life?
Source: Giang, Vivian (2017), “You can teach yourself to be a risk taker”, BBC Capital

		Comments Sort by date Sort by rating Rating
		5 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	Risk Appetite of Decision-makers In short, a person's risk appetite is the level of risk (s)he is willing to accept. Some people may ... Sign up

		6 Philippe Barteau Entrepreneur, France
	Risk Appetite of Organizations In a literal sense, defining your appetite means defining how "hungry" you are for risk. WHAT IS ... Sign up

		4 Therese Palange Project Manager, France
	7 Ways to Cure an Aversion to Risk Vozza (2015) published a nice list of seven ways to cure your aversion to risk: 1. Start with Small... Sign up

		2 Ben Smith Manager, United Kingdom
	Stress Reduces your Appetite for Risk The article mentions the consideration of stress management; if one area of our life is particularly... Sign up

		1 Paramathmuni srinivas Kumar India
	Deficit in Looking Inward Decreases Hunger of Risk-taking It seems there is a correlation between a deficit of looking inward and the hunger for risk taking. ... Sign up

		1 Gregory Johnson Coach, United States
	Chosen Risk Profile Interesting dialogue regarding Risk Attitude. I believe risk attitude and behavior are situational. ... Sign up

		3 Yuriy Duchev CxO / Board, Ukraine
	What Level of Risk is Acceptable to You? Of course, risk feelings and risk controlling are more and more important for all people in any posi... Sign up

		3 PRASAD SN Professor, India
	Risk is a Perception Risk is a perception which may or may not be based on the knowledge of actual possible outcomes A p... Sign up

		2 Jeff Washburn Strategy Consultant, United States
	How to Expand Your Risk Horizon Does the decision at hand threaten who you are and what you want to represent? Nobel laureate Herber... Sign up

		1 Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	How to Develop an Appropriate Attitude to Risk Attitude underlies behaviour and usually develops early in life. The extent to which a child is shie... Sign up