Take Back Your Life!

The greatest risk is really to take no risk at all. You’ve got to go out there, jump off the cliff, and take chances.” ~ Patrick Warburton

As we head into 2018, which has such a lovely ring to it for some reason, you have a wonderful opportunity to throw more caution to the wind and pursue more of what will make your heart sing. Life goes by in a flash. Why keep waiting to do what you truly, deeply, madly want to do?

The only right time is now. That is all you have at your fingertips. You may or may not reach retirement. I don’t like that living model anyway. Working like a dog until you are 65, then finally doing what you want. That makes no sense. Why not just live along the way?

I always loved the film, “The Year of Living Dangerously” with Sigourney Weaver and Mel Gibson (1982). The title drew me in and didn’t disappoint. It has romance, intrigue and danger. They live on the edge and love every minute of it.

Can you make 2018 the year you choose to live dangerously? I am going to make that pledge for myself if you care to join me. I will be more dangerous in making my art, programs and stories and marketing my art, programs and stories. I will take even more emotional risks speaking up, something I view as my life’s big project.

To live dangerously, I (you, we) need to examine the following:

Are you living dangerously already? If not, what caution tape are you putting up around your own life to keep yourself out of your own life? What are you trying to keep yourself from getting too close to? And what are the fears around that?

Children come into the world ready to explore and take chances, to live dangerously because no one has told them to live ONLY a safe life. As we get older, we hear more and more to stay safe, be safe, live safe, work safe. I’m not sure any of that advice even keeps you safe since so many of life’s pitfalls are accidental. You are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ironically, sometimes because you were trying to be safe.

Sometimes you’ve got to live a little to have a life worth getting up in the morning for. When I was a kid, we rode dangerously on our horses all the time. Galloping through the woods, down steep shoots with jumps on them. We did point to points, again galloping out of control through the woods from point to point picking up a flag, then continuing in.

I used to walk alone by the river from my home in one town to through another town to the town after that to ride my horse on the weekends. Sure, I felt little nervous but I did it anyway and always stayed hyper aware with plans b and c. My mother used to say, “call me later and I’ll pick you up.” She had no qualms about it. Is the world more dangerous today? I really don’t think so. You just hear about it more.

As I got older, my risk taking lessened and I became more scared to do the things I did as a young girl. It’s a slippery slope that I just started to slide down. Fortunately, I shimmied myself partly back up again. For example, when we visited Hungary right after the iron curtain “fell,” we were warned not to walk from our hotel to this restaurant about a third of a mile away. Take a cab they warned. We did anyway and it was fine. Yes, we passed some folks who might have wanted to do something nefarious to us (who knows) but we acted confident. All turned out fine. Best food we had on our entire trip.

The other way to feel more powerful is to take up karate or self defense, something I also plan to do in 2018. Be like wonderwoman or wonderman and you’ll feel more confident out in those allegedly scary places.

I know that far too many people land on their death beds wishing they’d taken more chances in life.

Best Wishes for a crazy ass 2018.