Can you create a better life by simply doing something different?

Last week I spoke for the WXN - The Women's Executive Network - in Toronto to a sold out crowd of passionate women.

I was speaking on the topic of embracing strategic risk in your life which also presupposes possible failure.

Two quotes from Albert Einstein started off the evening.

The first:

The quote is elegantly simply.  However, as you unpack it, you realize that to do something different you open yourself up to the possibility of failure and uncomfortableness.  That's why we continue to act in the same manor - we know the result (even if we don't necessarily like it) and because it is comfortable.  It can be really uncomfortable at times to do even the smallest tasks differently.

And the second:

This quote of Einstein's almost contracts the first.  Here he's telling us that you need an outside force to assist you with knowing when your thinking is flawed.

That's why we need to attend events like the ones at WXN.  We need to read books, engage with coaches, mentors and do things differently and expose ourselves to new and unknown stimulus - while being courageous enough to embrace risk (which could mean failing) and get out of our comfort zone.

What are you willing to do differently today to shake up your efficient, but not always so risk embracing brain?  Here's some easy to try ideas:

• Drive to work a different way
• Go out of your way to visit a coffee shop in a part of your city you've never been
• Switch coffee for tea, or hot chocolate or a flavour of pop you haven't had since you were a kid
• Listen to 3 songs from a genre you never would consider
• Pick up a book or magazine that's the polar opposite from what you normally read
• Brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand

Some of the most brilliant minds of our time had insights and made discoveries not while they were focused on the problem at hand, but when their body and mind were engaged in a novel activity.  Try something new today and graduate from simple tasks like the examples on my list to greater challenges.

I'll be speaking for the Calgary women at WXN this Wednesday, October 28th.  For more information, visit WXN.  There's still a few tickets - would love to see you there!