Risk – The Poem

What is the purpose of life? Well, this thought has the potential to start debates and invite a point of view from the mundane to the highest philosophical school of thought. But, in most practical terms, one of the most logical purposes of life is to do “that” which comes from the depths of your being. Isn’t it? To listen to something that shouts inside your head, your heart, and your conscience.

Yes, there is risk involved in asking for the right role you think you deserve in the project implementation ladder. Yes, there is risk involved in changing the employer, and sometimes in not changing the one. Yes, there is a risk in breaking that image of a serious, thoughtful coder/manager for becoming the cheerful, available, friend of all. Yes, there is risk in pursuing what you feel should be pursued. Yes, there is a risk in asking for help. Yes, there is a great risk in renouncing the seeming comfort for thinking & pursuing what we really want to do, something more meaningful to us.

Yes, there is a great risk in making resolutions to leave a bad habit; there is a great risk in accepting the challenge to be a better person each day. Yes, there is a great risk in leaving the comfort of wasteful activities and indulging in some seriously useful pursuit. Yes, there is a great risk in abhorring the bad company for the good. Yes, there is risk in walking alone. There is a great risk in loving all. There is a great risk in criticizing none.

The risk is that you have to kill yourself, your cheaper version, and you have to bear the labor pain of giving the birth to a better you!

Do you think that neglecting the most genuine demand of our deepest selves helps us in any way? Think, think at least… Nothing is permanent except change… Take that plunge, or why did you come on earth?

Here is a poem I read somewhere, it helps. I do not know the poet’s name, but the poem is beautiful.

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out to another is to risk involvement.
To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self.
To place your dreams, ideas before a crowd is to risk their loss.
To love is risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To hope is to risk despair.
To try is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken,
because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing,
does nothing, has nothing, and is nothing.
They may avoid suffering and sorrow,
but they cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, live.
Chained by their certitudes,
they are a slave: they have forfeited their freedom.
Only a person who risks is truly free.

If you know what you really feel you should be doing, do something about it; give some serious thought, plan and jump! If you do not know, take that risk to challenge the complacency and find out! Remember, if you are not moving forward, you are automatically moving backward by virtue of the gravitational pull of inertia. So, make that effort and rise above yourself, and do something to become better each day.