If a random person was asked to define the traits of the most successful human beings among us, they would inadvertently re-iterate the biggest cliches - hard work, persistence and a numerous other qualities. This is not to say they are irrelevant, but the problem with most of these answers is that the complex essence of each of these "values" are often lost in translation.
The least spoken of them all is the defining moment or the "tipping point" that makes these success stories a reality - the virtue of willingness to taking action ,an appetite for risk.
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When we think of the word "risk", the first thing that comes to mind is some form of defying activity such as walking on a tight rope, bungee jumping or something less thrilling with a subjective element of danger. Contrary to popular belief , every single hour of our existence is a risk no matter how small . In living every moment we are escaping a seemingly negligible probability of death. Look around, there might be a ceiling fan spinning above your head ready to part with the holder, or a mosquito carrying a deadly virus. If we could explicitly write down every single of such possibility, the list would simply be endless . Life isn't so safe now, is it?
If survival has taught us anything, it's that we are to protect ourselves from danger. Early men made weapons to protect themselves from wild animals. But, there was no escape from the harsh reality of going out into the wilds for hunting game. Locking themselves up for the sake of survival, wasn't an option.
WHY WE ARE FOND OF COMFORT ZONE
The best quote on risk taking(Source)
Comfort zone is a very familiar territory. We are familiar with the limited nature of its possibilities. Our lives inside these might be mundane and uneventful, but it's still familiar. This is what we tell ourselves when we are afraid to sail out into uncharted territories. However, history bears testimony that our change in our actions is what ultimately led to change in outcome. This change in behavior and the way we approach things, might not always be fruitful, but the role change plays, and has always played in success is simply, undeniable.
The earliest example of risk taking (Source)
Ever heard of people constantly whining, as to why their lives are boring? The underlying reasons might be several, but the average man unknowingly complains of how predictable their lives have become, not realizing that more than often, it is them who have locked themselves up in their own comfort zones.
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Risk taking ,of course, is not to be taken at its face value. There are things that are objectively catastrophic to our existence. For e.g. jumping in front of train track, where the risk to reward ratio is extremely poor. But there are many things in life, surviving which makes us a true champion. It might be something as simple as chatting up a random stranger(assuming we are threatened by a negative response), not necessarily because we are expecting great things to happen immediately, but we are breaking through our own barriers of comfort in which we remain most of our lives. There is no better habit we can adopt in our entire lifetime than the habit of learning to embrace a little pain, a little discomfort that will radically alter the way we see things, not to mention change our lives for the better.