How can you motivate yourself and get the courage to push yourself out of your comfort zone and take calculated risks?

What motivates you to try something you have not done before? What gives you the courage to take risks, make unpopular decisions, or go against the tide?

I recently attended a leadership training, and one of the exercises was to write a speech that your boss would give about you at your retirement party. What would you want your boss to say about you looking back at your career? Would you not prefer having taken risks and not having to wonder ‘what if’?

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Trying to write this speech about yourself feels like a wake-up call (without a snooze button), and you suddenly think of all the things you should have already done by now. It hit me that the best time to start making a change and stop being afraid would have been a long time ago, and that the second best time is right now. It’s like trying to write your own review, you are more critical and tough on yourself than your boss would ever be (unless you are seeing yourself in the victim role in which of course you are right all the time and everyone else around you wrong). Continue reading Stop making excuses and start taking risks! →