Are You Risking Too Much?
I was speaking to a good friend the other day, and she was sharing to me that her friends were concerned about the risks she was taking. She is pushing 80 years old, and still hikes in the mountains and takes road trips by herself, which for many of her peers seems too risky. She expressed how at this late in the game, she isn’t interested in sitting in a rocking chair…she wants to keep living as long as she can, and that means taking calculated risks.
I love that she is taking those risks, and encouraged her to continue. She understands the consequences that she risks, and modifies her activities to what she considers reasonable risk, but the consequences of giving up on the things she loves doing while she is able is not worth it. Unfortunately, there are many people much younger than her who won’t risk living.
To live life, one must risk. To die, one must only wait.
Living is a risky proposition. The end is assured, yet so many people try to bargain with death by not risking life. They think they can get more time before death by hiding from life. The problem with hiding from death, is that there is no life without it.
I’ve never seen so many walking dead as in the last couple years, those who have determined that the path to virtue is hiding from life and other people. People have hidden from life and others to avoid illness and death, yet there is even more illness and death (and poverty) as a result. So, perhaps fear is a poor format for living a healthy life.
In trying to hide from death and illness, the only thing people avoided was life. Consequences and creativity (death & life) go hand in hand; if you hide from consequences (death), you don’t get to create (life).
When I took the BWRAG training (Big Wave Risk Assessment Group) in order to have more skills in assessing and managing risk while surfing, there was a discussion about being a risk technician versus being a risk taker. Here in Puerto Rico, we don’t have lifeguards, and emergency services can be undependable. That means we as surfers have to be more aware of risks to ourselves, our fellow surfers, and others enjoying the ocean. I’ve saved people who were swept out to sea, as have many local surfers here.
Everyone has a different tolerance for risk in their life. The point isn’t to avoid risk but to understand the risks. When we speak of risk, we are talking about potential consequences to our actions. When we can asses that, we can manage the results, and have a plan to handle the consequences (at least mentally).
That’s one way to handle fear. When you find that you are afraid, look at the consequences if your fear were to be realized, and figure out how you would handle that outcome. Even if you don’t actually do what you are afraid of because you determine it isn’t worth it, it is empowering to know that you could handle the consequences if you needed to.
There’s no need to take stupid risks (be a risk taker), but there is a need to take risks consciously (be a risk technician).
This life is a precious gift, and can be so full of loving, sharing, and amazing experiences, but you have to decide that the potential consequences of living fully are worth risking. You let go of life so you can actually live it. You must look in death’s face and laugh until its day comes.
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