Why Everyone Needs to Take Risks

   

        I am having a hard time knowing what to write. I think that I have started to feel trapped in this box of writing what I think most people will want to hear instead of what I want to say. I want this blog along with all my other endeavors to be successful of course, but I think that I have started to put too much pressure on myself to figure it all out right now and have the plan set in stone of what I want to do and what I would like to accomplish. I have never been one for wanting to take great risks, I kind of have always been a little anxious to leap into the unknown, yet I always admired those who did. Lately I have felt uncomfortable in the life that I am pursuing. I feel restless and a little bored to be honest. I feel like I have done things I have always done and I have pursued things I have always pursued. But that needs to end. I have started to make little tweaks to my life and it feels great and I think that everyone should try it.

      Life is all about taking risks. There are big risks and there are small risks. Nevertheless, nothing good in life will come without taking a few leaps of blind faith and hoping for the best. I had pursued the same idea of what career I want for years, probably since maybe 5th or 6th grade. I had ignored all other inklings towards other interests and simply focused on my predetermined idea of what my life should turn out to be. But recently I spoke to someone about how unsatisfied I felt in pursuing the career track I was on (nutrition, by the way), so we chatted a little about it. I told her how much I loved writing and blogging, and how my dream career would be a journalist for National Geographic Travel. She asked me questions about why I liked writing and what about it that I enjoyed until suddenly it just clicked. I realized that all this time I have been settling on my "safe" passion for nutrition because I was too afraid to take the chance of failing and my true one of journalism. There is always going to be a need for people in the medical field, but journalism is quite a bit less secure. A lot of journalists are simply freelance writers trying to just make a living before they can secure a steady, constant job. Though I still love nutrition, I finally understood that part of me shut out journalism as an option because it involves a lot of unsteady footing and days where I wouldn't know exactly what my next step would be. It is a risk. But I am taking this risk and I am excited.
        I think risks are something that all people should take. They don't have to be huge, life altering risks. A risk can be something as simple as maybe just trying out a new activity that you have never done but always wanted to try. A risk can also be as imaginative as you would like, say, moving to a new city on a whim. Risks help us to grow. Without taking chances, we as people stay complacent in our daily routines and live in a state of mind that traps us in fear, anxiety, nervousness, boredom, and robs us of the possibility to have a future even better than we could have dreamed of. Taking a blind leap of faith into the unknown may not always be successful though. Sometimes it may hurt us. That is part of the game when it comes to taking risks. But even the failed chances can reveal positive personal growth. They give us a chance maybe to move on from what we thought we wanted, or they serve as motivation to push even harder towards our goals. Regardless of if the outcome is not what we anticipated, without risks we might never know what we could possibly achieve.
     Take chances and truly live.