Walt Disney's first company went bankrupt. Instead of giving up he headed to Hollywood with twenty dollars and a suitcase to start a new business. He believed in himself and his ideas. It turned out to be a really good risk.

Michael Jordan was cut from his sophomore varsity basketball team for being too short. He stuck with the game and ended up one of the best basketball players in the world.

Terry Fox started his Marathon of Hope, running across Canada after having one leg amputated due to cancer. He wanted to raise money for cancer research. Terry never finished the run because cancer took his life. To date more then 400 million dollars have been raised for cancer research in his name.

Winston Churchill did poorly in school for which he was punished. He also had a stuttering speech impediment. Churchill went on to become the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and a Nobel Prize winner.

One of the greatest baseball players of all time Reggie Jackson struck out 2597 times at bat.

Each of these individuals teach us that in order to have an amazing life you have to believe in yourself and take extraordinary risks even when everything and everyone around you sends the message that you can't do it.

When you take risks you can start big or small according to your threshold of comfort. Some people take giant leaps and others feel more at ease with baby steps as they build their risk taking muscle. It doesn't matter which category you fall into, as long as you are taking risks.

Sometimes you just have to jump into things instead of dwelling or meditating on them for days on end because hesitation may result in a missed once in a life time opportunity. Just use logic and make sure you aren't putting your life or someone else's life in danger.

If you find that you want to take more risks but something is holding you back; or maybe just the thought of taking risks has you shuddering, get to the root of issue. Maybe you are holding onto a fear or belief in your mind that is limiting and negative. Perhaps you don't even know what is stopping you from taking the risk, you just know every time you want to step out and try something new, you find yourself frozen and rooted in place.

This is the perfect opportunity to examine your beliefs about risks, failure and making mistakes. Also notice and become aware of your beliefs and thoughts about yourself and your abilities.

A person might take a risk and make a mistake, but it isn't a failure until he or she decides that it is a failure and starts beating themselves up about it.

Are you worried about what other people might think of you? How do you measure success? Do you fear success? Are you dealing with lack of self confidence, self worth and deserving? Negative and limiting beliefs in any or all of these areas need to be uprooted, re-engineered and replaced with positive beliefs in order to start moving forward.

It's important to believe in yourself and to take risks. Holding a mind full of positive beliefs will support, encourage and propel you forward. When you start taking risks, jumping on opportunities and accepting challenges amazing things begin to happen; an amazing life unfolds and at the center of that is an amazing person. That amazing person is you.

Esther Bartkiw is a Core Belief Engineering Practitioner, Motivational Speaker, Nutritional Cleansing Coach and Author. She can be reached by email at esther(at)changefromwithin.ca Visit her website at http://www.changefromwithin.ca and follow her tweets at http://www.twitter.com/changeisgood