Wisdom Wednesday: Risk and Chances

Sometimes life is about well-laid plans but other times it's about taking chances. Risks are a double-edged sword, a great wager with a great reward. The life you've been given only comes once and sometimes a leap of faith must be made. I've been thinking a lot about risks the last few days. I worry about whether I'll ever make money as an archaeologist. I worry about finding a job after my internship. I worry about whether to apply to this field school or this job there or that job there. Sometimes my life feels like one big set of dominoes. One small risk taken, without proper planning and the whole thing comes crashing down. In the end, I drive myself crazy pondering the what-ifs and worst-case scenarios. Even with my best laid plans, a large amount of belief and determination is required. While this is a day early, as I stay busy pondering risks and chances of my own, here's some quotes about making a leap of faith.


You get as many chances as you want; as many as you dare to make for yourself.
~ Edward Bloor

If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.
~ Jim Rohn

Fear stifles our thinking and actions. It creates indecisiveness that results in stagnation. I have known talented people who procrastinate indefinitely rather than risk failure. Lost opportunities cause erosion of confidence, and the downward spiral begins.
~ Charles Stanley

It is better to risk starving to death then surrender. If you give up on your dreams, what's left?
~ Jim Carrey


Living at risk is jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down.
~ Ray Bradbury

During the first period of a man's life the greatest danger is not to take the risk.
 ~ Soren Kierkegaard

People have to really suffer before they can risk doing what they love.
~ Chuck Palahniuk

It seems to be a law of nature, inflexible and inexorable, that those who will not risk cannot win.
~ John Paul Jones

There are one hundred men seeking security to one able man who is willing to risk his fortune.
~ J. Paul Getty

Often the difference between a successful person and a failure is not one has better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one's ideas, to take a calculated risk - and to act.
~ Andre Malraux