Considering Risk

This is the first of the Dalai Lama’s 18 Rules for Living that I’ll be pondering over the next 18 days.

I love how the Dalai Lama gently suggests the notion.  “Take into account” seems like a subtle way of asking us to consider this idea.  Like, “Hey maybe you will have an amazing life without taking any chances, but maybe not.”  Consider that if you want something great, you may have to sacrifice something.  Great love, great achievement, and a great life warrant risk taking, he seems to imply. It’s worth considering what I’m willing to risk for something I want.

I don’t consider myself much of a risk taker.  But to be fair, I’ve traveled widely and moved to new places more than a few time.  Many would call that risk taking.  And though I’ve changed my career (several times), I still consider myself a pretty conventional person.  I like to take leaps but only if I know the safety net is there and solid. Tempered adventure.  I’m an incremental risk taker, you might say, with a modest risk profile.  That’s sounds about right.

This picture is a perfect example.  I’m riding an elephant during my day long mahout training in Thailand.  And yes, it is hard to stay on top of the elephant as it rises fifeteen feet in the air or as it starts to playfully roll over in a river.  But I consider those managed risks — exciting but not life changing. No real peril and no inherent sacrifice which seems to me to be the basis of real risk taking.  Risk implies a willingness to let go, to leap without knowing the net lies below.

So how can a humble being like me embrace this first rule of lving.  I’m often full of doubt and fear,  stubbornly holding on to what I have but still demanding more.  Wholly unwilling to really put myself at risk.  Or maybe it’s more that I don’t know what I’m risking it all for.

Consider that risk may not mean gambling away my meager fortune or setting sail to rescue children in Darfur.  For me and for many of us, risk may just mean the willingness to let go of what we thought life and love was supposed to be like. Maybe it means loosening up my hold on my absolute certainty that I know what’s best for me or that I’m clear how life “has” to be.  Maybe it’s risky enough just to say that today I’m doing the best I can, I’m taking action that seems right, I’m being helpful and kind wherever I can be, and I’m willing to hope that these small steps will lead me somewhere fantastic.

Or at least they will take me where I’m meant to be.