Show notes
Being creative requires taking some risks. Sometimes it’s the risks that hold us back from moving forward and being creative. Learn about two types of risks, what it really means to step out of your comfort zone, and how to test assumptions you might have about your fears.
What You’ll Learn
* Learn the difference between inherent risk and perceived risk
* What is really means when you hear “step out of your comfort zone”
* How to test your assumptions about your fears
Resources
* Climer Cards Kickstarter project from 2012
The Weekly Challenge
Take a risk! Test your assumptions by taking a risk to help you be more creative. Share in the comments what happened when you took the risk, no matter how small or big it was. Feel free to also use the comments section to ask Amy questions.
Transcript
Feel like reading instead of listening? Download the free PDF Transcript or read it below. Enjoy!
Transcript for Episode #011: Creativity and Risk Taking
Amy Climer: Hey everyone. Welcome to the Deliberate Creative Podcast episode #011. On today’s episode, we’re going to talk about stepping out of your comfort zone in order to be more creative. This is all about taking risks in order to be more creative. There’s a strong connection between creativity and risk taking. In fact one of the hardest things about creativity is that it requires taking risks. Risk means there’s an unknown outcome and that outcome can be a bit scary.
Let’s define risk. Risk is the exposure to the possibility of some loss including a physical or emotional trauma. We tend to want to avoid physical and emotional traumas, but on the flipside, the idea of taking a risk can lead to significant gains – whether those are physical gains, emotional, financial, spiritual, etc.
Because creativity is about doing something where you don’t know the outcome, that means it’s about taking a risk. It also means that being creative can have significant gains and there can be significant losses as well. In essence, you cannot be creative while remaining completely safe. I think that’s where some of us tend to get stumped a bit because that is a little bit scary.
There are two types of risks that I’m going to talk about today relevant to creativity. There are inherent risks and perceived risks. Inherent risks are risks that are an integral part of the activity. If they were removed, the nature of the activity and the expectation of it would be significantly modified. For example, rock climbing. If you removed all risks related to rock climbing, it wouldn’t really be rock climbing anymore. On the other hand, if you are someone who is going to be rock climbing, you want to be thoughtful about managing those risks. When we’re talking about inherent risk, it doesn’t mean that you’re careless or not paying attention and you’re goofing off. It means that you’re managing those risks and you’re being thoughtful about them yet knowing that at the same time they still exist.
If you’re a rock climber, you’re conscious about your gear and taking care of your gear, about setting up the climbs and the routes in a thoughtful responsible way – in a way that’s going to keep you safe, in a way that if you fall, you’re not going to actually hit the ground, and potentially that could lead to death or very serious injury. Those are the risks that you are trying to mitigate and manage, but if they are not present, you don’t really have rock climbing. I don’t know what you would have. That’s an example of an inherent risk.
Another example might be the stock market.
What You’ll Learn
* Learn the difference between inherent risk and perceived risk
* What is really means when you hear “step out of your comfort zone”
* How to test your assumptions about your fears
Resources
* Climer Cards Kickstarter project from 2012
The Weekly Challenge
Take a risk! Test your assumptions by taking a risk to help you be more creative. Share in the comments what happened when you took the risk, no matter how small or big it was. Feel free to also use the comments section to ask Amy questions.
Transcript
Feel like reading instead of listening? Download the free PDF Transcript or read it below. Enjoy!
Transcript for Episode #011: Creativity and Risk Taking
Amy Climer: Hey everyone. Welcome to the Deliberate Creative Podcast episode #011. On today’s episode, we’re going to talk about stepping out of your comfort zone in order to be more creative. This is all about taking risks in order to be more creative. There’s a strong connection between creativity and risk taking. In fact one of the hardest things about creativity is that it requires taking risks. Risk means there’s an unknown outcome and that outcome can be a bit scary.
Let’s define risk. Risk is the exposure to the possibility of some loss including a physical or emotional trauma. We tend to want to avoid physical and emotional traumas, but on the flipside, the idea of taking a risk can lead to significant gains – whether those are physical gains, emotional, financial, spiritual, etc.
Because creativity is about doing something where you don’t know the outcome, that means it’s about taking a risk. It also means that being creative can have significant gains and there can be significant losses as well. In essence, you cannot be creative while remaining completely safe. I think that’s where some of us tend to get stumped a bit because that is a little bit scary.
There are two types of risks that I’m going to talk about today relevant to creativity. There are inherent risks and perceived risks. Inherent risks are risks that are an integral part of the activity. If they were removed, the nature of the activity and the expectation of it would be significantly modified. For example, rock climbing. If you removed all risks related to rock climbing, it wouldn’t really be rock climbing anymore. On the other hand, if you are someone who is going to be rock climbing, you want to be thoughtful about managing those risks. When we’re talking about inherent risk, it doesn’t mean that you’re careless or not paying attention and you’re goofing off. It means that you’re managing those risks and you’re being thoughtful about them yet knowing that at the same time they still exist.
If you’re a rock climber, you’re conscious about your gear and taking care of your gear, about setting up the climbs and the routes in a thoughtful responsible way – in a way that’s going to keep you safe, in a way that if you fall, you’re not going to actually hit the ground, and potentially that could lead to death or very serious injury. Those are the risks that you are trying to mitigate and manage, but if they are not present, you don’t really have rock climbing. I don’t know what you would have. That’s an example of an inherent risk.
Another example might be the stock market.