Be Your Own Safety Net

Be Your Own Safety Net

You can trust the wind, the waves, and the water… but can you trust yourself?

Sailing was my dad’s great adventure. A self-taught sailor, he navigated the open ocean from Cocoa Beach to Bimini in the 1970s, long before GPS could hold his hand. No detailed maps, no digital charts, just instinct, experience, and an unshakable belief that he could figure it out. After he passed, I found a tattered Time-Life Guide to Sailing with his handwritten notes in the margins. But I know for a fact that no book taught him how to read the sky or adjust his course. That knowledge? That was earned.

And that’s what being your own safety net is really about.

We talk a lot about security in leadership—safety nets, backup plans, contingency strategies. But at the end of the day, no system, no company, no carefully curated career path can guarantee stability. It’s you—your ability to adapt, to get back up when you fall, to navigate with confidence even when the course is unclear—that keeps you afloat.

Leadership Requires Risk

There’s a famous John Maxwell quote: Fail fast, fail often, but always fail forward. But the truth is, failure willy-nilly is not what it’s about. This is about intentional testing—trying a new action after careful strategic thought, and then having the agility to adapt if the outcome isn’t what you expected.

Success doesn’t come from never stumbling—it comes from learning how to land after a free fall. If you trust yourself to recover, you start to take bolder steps, smarter risks. You stop waiting for certainty before moving forward, because you realize that certainty is a myth.

The best leaders? They don’t just react to change. They anticipate it. They expect the unexpected and keep moving forward anyway. And if they do fall? They fall onto something solid—because they built that net for themselves.

Your Career is Not a Riptide

It’s easy to feel like your career is just carrying you along, like you’re caught in a tide, drifting toward the next thing without full control. But great leaders don’t let the current decide their path—they set the course themselves.

Being your own safety net means defining success on your terms, not just reacting to what’s in front of you. It means making sure your work aligns with what you actually want—not just what’s offered. It’s about building a foundation of skills, relationships, and resilience that will hold you steady no matter what storm rolls in.

A safety net isn’t just there to catch you when you fall—it’s the structure that lets you climb higher in the first place.

You Can’t Learn by Watching

I think about my dad’s sailing a lot as I navigate my own adventure—building Leaders Uplifted, stepping into new leadership spaces, creating something that hasn’t existed before. And every time I find myself hesitating, waiting for more proof, more validation, more guarantees… I remind myself of something simple.

No one figures it out from the shore.

You learn by getting out there, adjusting the sails, reading the conditions, and sometimes—yes—taking a few waves to the face. You learn by doing.

So, let’s talk about what that means for you.

OK, Let’s Play: Design Your Own Safety Net

Building a career, a leadership identity, or even just a life you love isn’t about avoiding mistakes. It’s about making sure that when you take risks, you have the structure in place to turn setbacks into stepping stones.

Ready: Take inventory.

Where do you already have safety nets in place? What skills, relationships, or experiences could you lean on if things went sideways?

Set: Identify the gaps.

Where do you wish you had more support? More financial stability? More confidence in your ability to pivot? More mentorship or community?

Go: Start strengthening your foundation.

• Build your reserves. Financial, emotional, professional—have something set aside to give yourself options.
• Expand your network. The best opportunities come from the relationships you’ve built. Who’s in your circle? Who’s missing?
• Develop adaptable skills. The world is changing fast—what’s one skill you can invest in that will make you more valuable anywhere?
• Practice trusting yourself. Decision-making is a muscle. Start small, but start making calls with conviction.
  
  

The Best Leaders Create Their Own Stability

No one can live your life but you. No one else can define what success means in your world, and no one else can build the foundation you need to keep going when things get hard.

So, what’s your next move? Will you wait for the world to offer you security? Or will you start building it for yourself?

Because whether you’re sailing open waters or navigating the boardroom, the same truth applies: The more you trust yourself, the further you can go.
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Hey there! I’m Blair Bloomston, author of UPLIFTED WEEKLY and your friendly consultant, facilitator, and game-based educator on-call, bringing a passion and penchant for all things play (I’m also alliteratively all-in). As the founder of Leaders Uplifted, I help leaders like you tap into creativity, connection, and confidence to make work feel less like a grind and more like a game. Keep reading with me— I’m here to be your business best friend. Let's go!