Contributed by Kelley Keehn, Consumer Advocate, Financial Planning Standards Council
On Wednesday, January 18, join personal finance expert Kelley Keehn for an evening of cocktails and canapés at the Ron Joyce Centre. Keehn, Consumer Advocate at the Financial Planning Standards Council, will help attendees keep their New Year’s resolutions alive by sharing how to welcome more strategic risk into one’s personal and professional life. The event, titled Embracing Risk: Cocktails with Personal Finance Expert Kelley Keehn, will run from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The cost to attend is $30, and guests will also receive a copy of Keehn’s book, A Canadian Guide to Money-Smart Living. Below, read Keehn’s Top 3 Tips for taking on more risk:
1. Everything you desire is on the other side of fear
If you think you’ll act on your desire “one day” when you eradicate all of your fear, that day will never arrive. Susan Jeffers’ book Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway should be required reading before being able to graduate from high school. You need to feel fear, accept fear, embrace fear,Judo chop fear, and re-frame fear. When you trust yourself in the face of fear, you build character that will surprise you.
2. Get uncomfortable and do something different
Doing something totally different allows you to see the world in new ways. Author Tim Ferris suggests a brilliant exercise where for 48 hours you do the exact opposite of everything you’d normally do. Try it, and allow yourself to embrace new possibilities. Warning: trying something different opens you up to the possibility of failure (the only hack for growing rapidly) and uncomfortable feelings (sometimes exceedingly). However, if you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting. Only you know if it’s time for something different.
3. Get someone to help you see your blind spots
Einstein sagely reminds us that we cannot solve a problem with the same level of thinking that created it. So how are we to grow and change if we fundamentally can’t see or solve our own problems? Get help, and get the assistance of someone who can identify blind spots and direct your thinking in a different way. This could be a life coach, business adviser, financial planner, therapist, and many others. Or, get the best possible mentor in the area you’re trying to fix or change. How? Many of the brightest minds in the world have written books. For $20 to $30, you can gain access to their life story, tips, tricks, advice, and situations to avoid. If you hold a library card, you have access this knowledge for free via traditional books, audio books, DVDs, courses, and much more.
Kelley Keehn is a personal finance expert and best-selling, award-winning author of nine books. She’s also a media personality and expert on The Marilyn Denis Show, as well as Consumer Advocate for the Financial Planning Standards Council. Her mission is for Canadians to feel good about money.