Don’t Let Your Risk Manager Shut You Down

People who want to escape their job for a better future often get stuck because they can’t see anything else that they could do instead, other than something similar to what they do now.

When you are thinking (dreaming?) about what you'd prefer to be doing, you may be joined in your internal conversation by your internal risk manager.

Your risk manager shows up with questions like ‘yes but how on earth could I get this?’ or ‘that wouldn’t be possible because…’ Every idea is quickly squashed with arguments like 'it won’t pay enough', 'it will take too long to get up to speed in a new career', or 'I’m too old to change'.

Many of these are about challenges linked to ‘How’ - how to get the life you really want.

Just because you can’t (yet) see any paths to a better future, it doesn't mean they don't exist. Just because there will be challenges along the way (and there will be), it doesn't mean you won't be able to solve them.

Your ‘What Next?’ isn’t having a chance to develop because it keeps getting shut down by the ‘How?’

It’s easy to assume something would not be possible.

It can be hard to envisage taking certain risks.

It’s easy sticking with ideas very close to what you currently do.

Maybe you can find a solution that isn’t radical but which might improve your situation.

Can you do something different where you work now?

Can you do the same work at a different place where you can reset to work within parameters that are better for your personal life?

Is there a job with less money but fewer hours so you can pursue a second path that brings in another income stream?

But if you can feel it in your heart, your gut, your bones that this isn’t going to make the difference you crave, you need to think big.

You need to brainstorm properly and be really ambitious with your ideas.

Your internal risk manager shouldn’t stop you from taking risk. Your risk manager is there to protect you against doing something foolish. You are going to take risks to get your bigger future and it is right to exercise care and manage those risks.

So don’t let your risk manager shut down your ‘What Next?’ conversation before you’ve finished your analysis of what you’d really love to be doing.

The ‘How?’ is only relevant once you are clear about the ‘What Next?’ That’s when your risk manager joins the conversation to help you execute your ‘What Next?’

When I was struggling with this back in 2008, I worked out that my dream job (my ‘What Next?’) would be having interesting conversations with interesting people. My internal risk manager kept saying this was silly. I could never get paid to do that (or not get paid much). This was the ‘How?’ getting in the way.

It was only when I stopped trying to reject my idea that I stumbled across coaching and discovered that:

1. I could get paid to have interesting conversations with interesting people (coaching is a lot more than that but it has this at its core), and,
2. I could be well paid to have interesting conversations with interesting people.

What I discovered is that you must separate your ‘What Next?’ from your ‘How?’ They are distinctly separate steps. First figure out what you really want to do. Then work out how to get paid really well doing that.

So if you find your risk manager offering up all sorts of reasons why your ‘What Next?’ won’t work, be careful. Feel free to note down the objections.

They are what we can call ungrounded assessments and we can sort them out in due course. When the ‘What Next?’ is clear, we work on the ‘How?’

So for now, suspend your beliefs about what might be possible. Give your risk manager an hour off duty. Be creative, assume that money is no object, that no one would laugh at your idea, or that you don’t care what others think.

If there were no constraints to the work that you could do, what would you really love to be doing?

P.S. Let me know in the comments below some of your best ideas that would really scare your risk manager!