Taking Chances

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Taking Chances
5
Sat, 05-05-2007 - 8:52pm
Can you guys say a few words on taking chances in life? I am so afraid of failing that I am paralysed!
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-13-2003
In reply to: akt226
Sat, 05-05-2007 - 9:43pm

Failing doesn't generally kill you.
Failing doesn't scar you for life.
Failing doesn't ruin your life.
Failing is sometimes the best that can happen to you (in some situations).

If you don't try then you are in effect failing.

Really - what's the worst thing that could happen by trying something?? And don't say fail cause we've clarified about that failing isn't all that bad of an outcome :-)

You'll always fail at it if you never get out and try it. . . lack of effort is the biggest failure.

Avatar for cl_shywon
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2003
In reply to: akt226
Sun, 05-06-2007 - 1:23am

The only true permanent failure is death, and then you don't really know what's happened anyway, right?


Seriously, there isn't anything that could happen that you can't get over.

Avatar for floridagirl52
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-16-2006
In reply to: akt226
Sun, 05-06-2007 - 7:17am

Perhaps we should distinguish between "calculated" risks and "foolish" risks. I think most of us can pretty well judge what a foolish risk would be, i.e. investing all of your money on a stock tip that you saw scrawled on a bathroom wall vs. a calculated one, i.e., mustering the nerve to go up to a cute guy at a party to talk.

One of my favorite sayings, perhaps a bit morbid, is by Sheldon Kopp and it is: "We are all already dying, and we will be dead for a long time." This has really worked for me in the past.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
In reply to: akt226
Sun, 05-06-2007 - 10:27am
I always remember that I do not live forever, yet I always chicken-out at the last second .... I was told to develop the "habit" of approaching female strangers so I will no longer be afraid.
Avatar for cfk_3
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-14-1999
In reply to: akt226
Sun, 05-06-2007 - 11:06am

Practice makes perfect or so they say. I will follow FG's lead and include one of my favorite quotes:

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -- Samuel Clements