Monday, September 16, 2019

Taking Risks




In Being stuck is reasonable from Seth Godin's Blog, Seth Godin shares,

“If you truly want to get unstuck, if you want to move to higher ground or do something more worthwhile, the first question to ask is, ‘Am I willing to be unreasonable, at least for a while?’”

It is hard for me to take risks. I like to follow the well-worn path that others have taken, and it doesn’t require too much energy. Let’s face it, I’m basically lazy.

But sometimes I decide to take a risk and do something unreasonable.

When I decided to write a book, everyone worried that it might be a scam. I took a chance and wrote it and it was a wonderful experience. At the time, everyone worried that I was taking a big risk and wasting my time.

I am in the middle of setting up an online course for Furman. I had experienced friends who told me to stay away from doing this, but I took the risk. I had never done this before, and I was curious. At least now I will have the experience and if I decide to do this again if asked, I will be able to make an informed decision.

When we are hiking, sometimes my husband will be curious to see where an unknown path is going. I am a little skeptical about going somewhere I don’t know but he is the adventurous one and we go on our new adventure. Usually, it ends up somewhere wonderful.

This is a really hard concept for students because many times they have faced so many failures when they try something new. I try to explain to them that they should consider these situations as opportunities and not failures. If they haven’t tried something new and taken a risk, they would not grow as a person. They would never find out if they like something they haven’t tried before. They might find something exciting that they love but would never have known if they hadn’t tried.

Even if it feels a little unreasonable to try something new, I think that if it doesn’t risk bodily harm or financial ruin, it is worth trying if I want to do it.

How do you feel about taking risks? How do you get your students to take risks? Please share.


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