One of the things that people constantly struggle with in life is having the guts to take a chance on something. From love to business, chances are all around us … as are about one million excuses why we shouldn’t take those chances. But, as hockey hall of famer Wayne Gretzky says, “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”

Why is this true? Because you absolutely can not succeed at something that you never attempt. You can’t win the lottery if you never buy a ticket. You can’t make a goal if you never take a shot. And you can’t expect life to teach you lessons if you are not willing to live on the edge a little. While the logic seems simple, the execution literally scares the hell out of many people. But, this is mainly because they don’t understand the rules of the game. They have not yet learned that trying nothing at all is worse than taking a chance with the odds stacked against you.

A Win Is A Win … A Loss Is A Lesson

Success is something that everyone seeks. We all want to be great at something in our life. But getting to that success story is not usually a clear-cut path. Most of the time, it is a game of trial and error. And in order to find out what to do, we often have to learn what not to do. Since we are talking Gretzky, let’s use hockey as an example. Hockey is a fast sport, requiring excellent timing, split-second decision making, and for the players to be as tough as they are smart. But no one just walks onto the ice and gets it all right their first go around. The great athletes of the sport had to train, to learn, to work, and make a ton of mistakes in order to develop their abilities. This included taking a lot of shots that they missed.

Action Is Where It All Begins

I hear people talk a lot about things like perseverance, effort, and persistence. While these things are important to keep things moving in the right direction, they are only necessary after an action has been taken to even get things started. Have you heard the expression, “You can’t finish what you don’t start”? This is just another way of saying that life requires you to take chances and commit to action in order to get to a place of success. Trust me, it is a lot easier to steer a moving car than one that is sitting still in park.

Make It a Habit

Have you ever noticed that athletes will often spend hour after hour practicing the same thing, but with different scenarios? This is called training … and it is how they win. While every hockey player alive dreams of that moment when the goal is open, the goalie is down, and the defenders are clear, the odds of that happening are really pretty slim during most games. But instead of sitting on the sidelines, waiting for their one perfect shot of the season, they teach themselves how to overcome every obstacle that could possibly arise. They plan for the unknown, and then when it shows up, they are ready to face it and take their shot … no matter how difficult it may be to score.

Once you begin to take this same initiative with life, you will find that taking chances becomes easier, because you have developed habits to support you in making the most out of the things that life throws at you. You will have learned when to shoot, how to shoot (given the circumstances), and you won’t be afraid of the outcome. The more you put yourself in the game, the easier and more comfortable you will become with how to play. Anything that you do over and over … including taking a chance … will become a habit in your life.

Habits Create Momentum

Have you ever noticed that when something becomes a habit in your life, it is easier to do than to not do? This is because habits create momentum. And momentum, focused in the right direction, will push you over the humps that will cause others to slow and even quit. The great thing is that we have the ability to choose what habits are formed or allowed in our life, therefore directing our momentum anywhere we choose.

Don’t spend your life hesitating to take a shot or waiting for the stars to align and the risks to clear away before stepping into the game. Make the decision to be a person who takes chances, who shoots for the win with every shot he can get his hands on, and who creates a habit of trying in life. The only shots that you are sure to miss 100% of the time are those shots that you refuse to take at all.