The other day my son said “I’m going to be world champion in chess!”
I was quite amazed at his conviction – It was not really a question, more an observation.

My first thought was: wow, that’s great.

Then, I felt the need to protect him — isn’t this too ambitious? What would happen if he finds out it’s too difficult to climb that mountain?

But I felt that this instinct to “protect” is wrong. It’s really a “learned behavior” for us adults; over the years, with more responsibilities we tend to become risk averse; we avoid taking on really big challenges, and thus don’t fail very often.

This is exactly what Seth Godin describes in his book Linchpin – our lizard-brain trying to stop us from taking risks, and drives us to seek safety.

I think we should be more ambitious every day; take on big challenges and make life more interesting. So I said to my son: “wow, I really think you can. I will help you get there.”

So I urge you: take on a new big challenge today. You won’t regret it.