Taking Risks
I'm a writer, so there's always a part of me that's going to be most comfortable lost in a book or living in my own head. But I've been wanting to make one of the Creative Mornings for YEARS, and this month's theme - Risk - spoke to me.
It felt like one. From the detour to the warmer-than-anticipated morning to the room packed with people (none of whom I had ever met), from trying to figure out where to go and what to do and how not to spill coffee on myself or look like an idiot and where did they get those name tags? (Totally living in my head.)
Headed to work in Austin, Texas. Friday, 7:52 a.m.
Reading the creative manifesto.
I finally found a taco and a coffee and a name tag. And at the name tag table, I found another copywriter (oh thank god for other copywriters). And then we found our way through a conversation to a comfortable spot on the floor, and then we were all carried away through inspiring live music (I love you ATX) from Uncle Lucius, and the risk/reward equation tipped convincingly toward reward.
We split into two rooms for the surprise speakers, and I enjoyed hearing Clara Bensen of Salon viral article fame, and found surprise inspiration for a children's book I've been working on in the tone of her presentation. And after it was all over, copywriter friend and I exchanged notes on the two speakers, so it was like we both got to see each.
And only this weekend, when I found my name tag in the bottom of my purse, did I realize that the story I tell myself ("I'm risk averse.") is not the story I'm living in the world. Check the name tag at the top of this post.
The risk I will always take is hanging in there for the first kick - that moment my dad told me would always come eventually. In a soccer game, the first kick is the moment you first kick the ball, and all of a sudden your butterflies go away and you get out of your head and into the game. In life, it might be the copywriter you meet at the name tag table, the first time your boss likes a suggestion you've made, the wedgie from your first jump off the high dive.
It's the risk of sticking around long enough to get out of your head and into the world.
It's worth it.
What risk will you always take? Why?
