Late last night I read what Ellen wrote. She was talking about Seth’s piece on thrill seekers and fear avoiders. I read Seth’s post too. I woke this morning thinking about what I read.
Both of them avoided the word risk in the traditional sense. Seth said, “So why not call them risk seekers and risk avoiders? Well, it used to be true. Seeking thrills was risky. But no longer. Now, of course, safe is risky.”
Ellen said, “Thrill seekers move on, learn and live so that new opportunities soon wash over both thrills and fears in colors that open curtains of another Oscar possibility.”
They’re both right, but I still feel the risk — the Steve Farber OS!M of doing something when not doing something would be easier.
I guess, I’ll always be something of a thrill-seeking, risk taker. I won’t risk my life — no bungee jumping for me. The risks that I take are for the world that I believe in. I invest in every chance I can find to prove it’s okay to believe.
Sometimes those angels who are everywhere stand up and invest even before me.
I know some folks who are risking what they don’t really have to make something happen, They are investing in doing a usual thing in a remarkable way, solely becasue it’s time someone did. It’s not share the risk, share the benefit, because those who benefit won’t ever know — actually feel — the risk.
Somewhere along my life, I picked up a message that believing in heroes was naive at best. White knights and folks who do things without thought of gain or glory are often portrayed as fictional creatures. People who cared for my well-being told me that often enough. For them, I tried to believe, but how could I after the dad I had? My only recourse was to decide I’d rather be a fool than live in a world where heroes couldn’t be.
I chose right.
I’m taking that risk alongside those folks I talked about. And every day I watch them and think they are my heroes.
Heroes are ordinary people who have extraordinary values.
And they really do exist. They’re the ones who quietly do remarkable things so that we can believe.
Risk without calculated thought is foolish, but risk is necessary to obtain great rewards. This is the balance that investors talk about when looking at risk/reward of an investment..
However, life in general is a risk in and of itself… You realize this when you open yourself up to a new business venture, a new relationship, and even driving on the freeway…
But you don’t make life decisions on risk alone, you also base them on your life goals and if it is in line with your passion, and core values…
Great post Liz!
Hi Nicholas!
Risk without thought is really selfish. It leaves no room for the people who care about us, who invest in us, who look to us for wisdom. And there is always at least one,even if it is one we don’t see.
Risk for what we believe is sometimes called valor. I like that word. It resonates with purpose and humanity.
Thank you, Nicholas, for taking my thoughts further. Thank you, too, for telling me what you see.
Liz,
You nailed it with the “ordinary people with extraordinary values”! Often we can’t predict all the risks of an undertaking; we start and persist because doing so resonates with who we are at our core.
Mike
Hi all
Always was a fear avoider, nice and safe, well-liked because of that. Then I discovered risk is fun, risk is rewarding. Risk makes ME well-liked, not my agreeing-with-all-cause-it’s-safe behaviour.
Risk makes you grow and your circle of friends grows in the same rate.
(Don’t do bungy-jumping though, love my life too much, don’t trust things I can’t controle that much 😉
What was it John Wayne said?
Or maybe it was
Heroes move forward when most people freeze.
Hi Mike!
How wonderfully YOU said that. We persist and persevere and we make things happen. I’m a lucky girl to know all of the heroes I do. 🙂
Chris, side-note question on hero’s:
Does having reflexes makes you a hero (fight or flight reflex)?
Hi Karin!
I think that you and I should NOT GO bungee-jumping together sometime. 🙂
I don’t think I ever had a choice about being a fear avoider. Shy as I was, it hurt to be quiet when there was something right that wasn’t being done.
Chris,
I can hear your John Wayne voice. I’m so smiling at that. 🙂
Thank you for those quote that say it so well. I like the Chris Cree quote the best. 🙂
Thank you, Liz, for both the kind words and the inspiring post!
Thank you, Mike and you’re welcome too. 🙂
Karin, I guess it is conceivable that someone could be reflexively heroic.
Sometimes not fighting or running is the most heroic action to take. Look at Gandhi.
Me, I see heroism as being about intentionality.
Sortta like Chuck Yeager said in The Right Stuff:
(Can you tell I’m a bit of a movie buff? 🙂
That deserves a 😉
chuckle, how do you find those words! That makes you a hero in a some way – I think?
Like you I believe a hero’s being intentional ‘brave’, when the flight reflex is mentally stopped or changed into fight reflex (or vice versa of course).
I guess it is just easier to talk about heroics in the terminology of warfare because the stakes are so clearly laid out in that environment with death potentially being so imminent.
And Karen, the majority of the best words find me. Most often the ones that I labor the hardest to find are remarkably mediocre. But the ones that spill out without much deep thought can be quite juicy at times.
Basically it’s not my fault. 😎
Wonderful. Good on ya, Liz.
Hi Todd!
Welcome and thank you!
That was great! We were all meant to be a risk taker.
Amanda
http://thetimemastery.com
Wow – Liz I sense you just saddled up a hero for us all to see here! Seems to me that Don Quixote did the same thing and ir served Servantes and the rest us well.
You’ve just raised some of the deeper differences between success and mediocrity – and I’ll throw my chips in for the heroes too!
Hi Amanda!
I don’t know if we were meant to be. I just know there’s not another way for me. 🙂
Hey Ellen!
What images you give me. Thank you. It’s something special to know that you believe. 🙂
So Chris, how do you explain the Hans Castorps of the world?