The Risk in Things that We Don’t Do

At the beginning of each year, I share a list of quotes that inspire me. If you want to check out the 2022 version, you can read it here.

I want to dig deeper into these quotes and share why they resonate with me. If you are interested in starting your own blog or want some ideas for posts, I encourage you to choose from the list of quotes and write why it connects with you. I am going to try and model that in what I share today!

 


 

I read this quote by Erica Jong, and it connected with me in both a personal and professional sense.

 

 

I have shared a lot about my personal health journey over the past several years. Many of the things that I have tried in the past didn’t give me the results that I ultimately wanted.

But I am glad that I tried.

Not only because I picked up ideas through failure that I have applied today that are leading to success, but also because what would have happened if I gave up? 

One of my favorite quotes ever is the following from Jim Valvano.

 


 

“Hard work does not guarantee success, but lack of hard work guarantees that there will be no success.” Jim Valvano

 


 

We take risks when we try something new. 

But we also take risks when we stand still. They are just not as apparent at the moment and get lost in the comfortable of continuing to do what we have always done.

Professionally, I remember committing to leaving the profession in the early 2000s if I did not get a job in a different school district. It was no knock on the school that I was with at the time, but it was more I wasn’t happy living where I was at the time. 

So I committed to either a) getting a job in a different city or b) quitting education all together. Knowing that “b” was an option, I committed harder to making “a” happen.

There were two risks in this process.

 


 

Risk 1: Leave the profession I love and end up doing something that I wasn’t happy doing.

 

Risk 2: Stay in a location where I wasn’t happy and eventually hating the profession in which I was working.

 


 

Moving back to my health and fitness, I calculated the risk of exercising versus standing still.

Risk trying a new program and it not working.

Or

Risk standing still and letting my health continue to erode.

I chose to keep moving.

We always have known that trying something new inherently could involve a chance of failure. I am getting better at evaluating the possible consequences of standing still. 

Sticking with things is not always a bad thing, but it does have the potential to be.

Just something I have been thinking about as I look to grow in both personal and professional areas of my life.

 

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