Should you take more risks?

[Rex]

Sometimes I feel like I should start taking more risks. Do you ever feel like you don't take enough risks and sometimes end up regretting them?

Do you think it's better to trust your instinct and take more risks, whether it's socially, sexually, or in another way? This could mean coming out of the closet to the person you feared the most would react negativelly, or hitting on that person even though you were afraid of being rejected.

Life is pretty short after all. Sometimes I feel like I'm letting life pass me by.



Do you wish you would take more risks? Is it something you've ever thought about?



Discuss.


What do you think?

 

[ShavedBare87]

Life is all about risks. Take them. Will you be happier in the end? Who knows? That's why it's called a risk. But you will never know until you try.

I take risks all the time. I'm still alive so I guess that's a good thing

 

[NineOfClubs]

Yes, everyone should.

It's so much better than playing the "shoulda, coulda, woulda" game.

 

[swiss142]

You can't live life without taking risks, I mean honestly you might miss the chance of a lifetime just because you didn't go do something.

I really need to start for myself because I haven't taken enough risks, I mean I still can't swim goddam it! (but that's another topic)

 

[kallipolis]

Follow your dreams and fear for nothing, for nothing but fear prevents us from discovering who we are.

 

[Taz]

Risks make life worth living. If they pay off its an awesome feeling. If they don't you learn a valuable lesson and become a more balanced person.

 

[BearBoi]

That’s a pretty open ended question.

I mean, there are many levels of risk.

Personally, I think a healthy dose of common sense and self-restraint are most important. If you apply them wisely, then you should live a life in harmony with your authentic self. No need to feel limited or any desire to seek out some grandiose stunt or major life change.

That said, recognizing when a risk is advantageous and having the foresight to go for it is quite admirable.

Sometimes I like to whisper, “take a chance” and just go for something.

Other times I just roll my eyes and move on.

 

[NineOfClubs]

Not to bring my politics into it, but taking risks is what capitalism is all about.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 

[Anders123]

This thread brings to mind a moment from the television show 'How I Met Your Mother' (did I just lose all of my intellectual credibility for using that show as a reference?)

"Being scared lets you know that you're onto something important, and if you're not scared, it's because you're not taking a risk, and if you're not taking a risk, then what the hell are you doing?"

Unfortunately, more often than not I tend to play it safe; over-analysing and over-intellectualising every situation, effectively either eliminating most of the inherent risks, or having it result in complete inaction on my part. It's something I really try to work on, but my propensity for acute anxiety and panic attacks results in it being quite the arduous enterprise.

I should absolutely take more risks, and am attempting to do so ... but, you know... baby steps and all that.

 

[Ram]

What kind of risks are you talking about?

If it's the "snorting cocaine off an angry hooker's left tit with a straw made of old razor blades", then no, that's stupid. I did it before and it's no "risk".

Risk as in, investing your money into something or changing your job in this economy, asking the local homophobe out for a date... then I see what you mean.

I can vomit out the tired answers of following your dreams and taking risks but there is a reason why 90% of the us are where we are right now. The fear or the extreme comfort we take in "normalcy". I want to take risk but I [STRIKE]can't[/STRIKE] won't. It's as simple as that.

 

[Duigi-Luigi]

Yeah I probably should be taking more risks in my life but I think they need to be educated risks and not off-the-fly risk taking. Too much of the latter just stinks.

 

[voyager1994]

Taking risk is about weighing the pros and cons - if the cons outweigh the pros, would you still take the risk?

 

[AlmondMilk]

I need to learn to take risks. It's never too late, I suppose.

 

[sixthson]

I think our comfort zones are really not that comfortable, especially in retrospect. More boring, than anything. It's pretty exciting to discover we can do something that we always said "I could never do that". Even failure can feel good when we know we gave it our best. Failure is rarely fatal. When I first started my career, I was always second guessing every decision and lived in fear until the end result of success or failure. I would seek out the counsel of those wiser and more experienced than I (which is a smart thing to do) but ultimately, the decisions had to be mine. One of the wisest mentors I had told me I would fail and that I should expect failure. Until then I thought that failing meant I was a failure. He also told me failing wouldn't kill me unless I surrendered to it by giving up.

Love is often the biggest risk many of us take.