In our culture, the word risk so often implies circumstances that are solely trepidatious or negative. Why risk it?, we say. Suggesting that, if we decide to take a risk, we are putting ourselves in the line of fire unnecessarily, with the very real possibility of failure and discomfort. And yet, that possibility always exists. Life has a funny way of creating uncomfortable or less-than-ideal situations, whether we ‘risk it’ or not, asking us to learn and grow from the experience.

And so what happens when we choose to step into risky territory? Territory in which outcomes are rarely known, and unpredictability is standard. This is when risk can be our greatest ally. When we say Yes! to the things that we fear the most, that seem like a stretch out of our comfort zone, that promise uncertainty – and that simultaneously hold the potential to be our greatest teachers, helping us to move forward and thrive.

From this viewpoint, life can be seen as a dance, a conversation, with risk. An ever-changing, moving landscape. Sometimes, we choose to step in fully, to open, face-forward, to a situation that has no certain outcome. And then there are the times when we decide to keep it safe, to remain in a place that allows us to feel fully nurtured because we have a better sense of the rules. This is the dance: finding the balance between these two things in a way that promotes the healthiest version of ourselves. The One of us that feels safe, resourced and strong, while continuing to push boundaries, play the edges, so that we get as big as we are meant to be.

This is the beauty of the dance. Nothing is certain. There is no assured outcome. However, if we don’t take risks from time-to-time, we are denying ourselves the possibility of expanding into a level of self-expression and -realization that we might never have imagined.

These words from Dawna Markova are a beautiful call to the Dance With Risk:

I will not die an unlived life.
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance;
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.