One of the most powerful questions that I can ask, either myself or someone else, is what’s at risk to make a clear choice and to know what the cost of that choice is.  Risk creates a shift in my consciousness that takes me through shame and fear to eventually get what I want. 

The first time I heard this question was when I went through the New Warrior Training Adventure with the Mankind Project.  We used this on the weekend and we used it every week in our Integration Groups to get at what we wanted and what was blocking us from getting it.  Although it sounds like a very simple question to answer…….it is not…..at least for me.  This is when I really got in touch with the part of me that likes to stay vague with my choices because when I am vague I can stay stuck or I can stay in my victim.  When I get clarity, I get power to move forward. 

Recently when I completed the Shadow Work Basic Facilitators Training, we took the What’s at Risk concept to a much deeper level.  What I learned was that when I get in shame and fear about something I want to change in my life, if I can examine the risk and gain clarity then I can look at new options, create a better self-understanding, create more compassion for myself and others, and most of all create more safety for me to keep looking at these areas of fear in my life.  Most of the time it is fear of something that stands in the way of me getting what I want.

So what I have looks like this…….I can have what I want if I am willing to take the risk to get it.  That is my work and my risk.