Risk and Its Reward

**I wrote this on the plane while I was flying to UT for the holidays, but didn't find time to put it up until this morning.**

Laird Hamilton suggests that we all need to take risks in our lives. In his book, he suggests that risks don't necessarily have to be dangerous or scary, but he believes that taking risks is what keeps us young and mentally alert. He says that our risks don't have to be life-threatening. A risk can be as simple as putting ourselves into unfamiliar situations.

After reading through this section of the book, I've been thinking about the risks that I take in my life. I think, depending on who you ask, I can be a completely stay in my comfort zone kind of person or a risk taker. I'm pretty sure that no one would classify me as an extreme risk taker and I think I'm okay with that. I also believe that risk taking is very relative, depending on your perspective. For example, I may be a risk taker to someone who refuses to leave their comfort zone, but I may be in a rut to someone who takes extremes risks regularly. Like I said, I think that there is some relativity when looking at risk.

So, I've tried to come up with the least risk that I've taken in my life and I'm really struggling to come up with an example. In fact, I don't remember the last time I took a risk, unless you count me sharing my magazines with the guy sitting next to me on the plane. I'm pretty sure that action wasn't a risk, just a polite gesture, although I really do avoid talking to strangers on a plane. Oh, and I was only a little uncomfortable in that situation. So, yeah, I guess I haven't been much of a risk taker lately (if I am a risk taker at all, which is still debatable). I guess that perhaps I need to start considering taking some risks...