There’s an interesting question posted in The Daily Post today that made me think about a few things. it’s something I think everyone has in the back of their minds somewhere that they always consider and rarely do anything about. Here it is:

What’s the biggest risk you’d like to take — but haven’t been able to? What would have to happen to make you comfortable taking it?

I feel like I have taken some risks in my life, but not very big ones. This is actually a topic for another question I have in mind for later in the week, so we’ll have to get back to that particular approach another time. In the mean time, thinking about a chance I would like to take makes me consider a lot of different things I said I would like to try at one point in my life. After I recovered from being ill, I tried to promise myself that I was going to do more of the things I always said I would like to do or want to do. Sadly, life and reality always seem to have a way of getting in the way of what we would really rather be doing and other responsibilities and issues come along that need to be taken care of first, so everything gets pushed to the back burner. it’s just the way things work out for the majority of us along life’s path.

So what risk would I like to take but haven’t been able to? Well, I don’t know how much of a risk it would be, but I would love to be able to actually have the time, energy and confidence to stick to it and actually sit down and try to write something. I have had a couple of ideas for collections of short stories, but I just never seem to have the time to sit down and plan everything out properly and actually get down to the writing of them. I think a big part of it is having the time to do it while taking care of the other responsibilities I have on a regular basis, but there is another factor involved, and I think a lot of people have to deal with the same thing when they do not move ahead with something they really want to do. A lot of it has to do with confidence and the fear of failure. You have wanted to do this thing for so long and take this risk that it would be devastating to not be able to do it or even worse to find out that you just aren’t good at it. I think that is what holds me back more than anything else out there. Sure, I can make the time to do it if I really wanted to do so, and part of me wants to be able to do that. However, there is a larger part of me that doesn’t really want to find out whether or not what I write is any good or not. I guess we are all our own worst critics and it is hard to determine how good your work is until someone else sees it, I just have a hard time doing that myself. I guess it is something I will need to get over on my own. Sometimes it seems like it would be a lot easier if the risk I wanted to take was something like skydiving or driving a race car – something more tangible that I could just do and be done with. Writing takes so much more that it just doesn’t work that way, at least for me anyway. I guess what would have to happen for me to be comfortable enough to do it is to feel like I am really good enough to give it a try and that I actually have the time set aside to do it and then I don’t think I would have as many issues with it. Once I have built my confidence up enough to give it a try, I think I will move closer to reaching that goal.

So that’s my risk that I hope to take one day. What is your risk? It can be anything that you have always wanted to try to do. It doesn’t matter whether it is something physical or mental. You can answer the question here or catch up with me on Facebook or Twitter. I’ll also ask some people on Twitter and see if they answer.

On with the rest of the day. Check back again this week for some other questions, queries, posers and ideas, and anything else that may come along that I feel like writing about. Who knows, maybe I’ll start taking a risk today.