Welcome to Productivity Paradox from Inkwell Press, a podcast focused on finding success and happiness through the power of productivity.

Each season, Tanya focuses on specific strategies to help you discover your own priorities and purpose.

Season six is all about turning your stumbling blocks into starting blocks.

You can also join Tanya for more interaction and support in her free

Facebook group at Inkwellpress.com slash group. And now here's your host, Tanya Dalton.

Hello, hello, everyone. Welcome to Productivity Paradox. I'm your host, Tanya Dalton,

owner of Inquell Press, and this is episode 77. Today's episode is brought

you by Trunk Club, and I'll be sharing a little bit more about that later in the episode.

Today, I want to talk about taking risks. As you know, this entire season, we've been talking

about taking our stumbling blocks and turning them into starting

blocks. And I think taking risks is a big stumbling block for a lot of people. But risk taking has

been vital to humans for really as long as we've been alive. When our ancestors were hunters

and gatherers, they risked their lives in search of food and

bending off predators. Risk taking involves testing our boundaries in a safe environment,

and that helps us cultivate what we value and define who we are.

Andreas Wilkie, a psychology professor at Clarkson University, studies decision-making,

and says that when we take risks, we are very quickly, usually subconsciously,

evaluating the perceived chances and benefits of success versus failure.

If the chance of success and the benefits of success outweigh the chance of failure and the cost of failure,

then our minds tell us to go for it.

Making decisions often relies on our skill level or our expertise in it.

When you have more experience in taking risks, you're more likely to take the chance that

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