The Art Of Living Dangerously

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said..."Live dangerously and you live right."..and "The dangers of life are infinite, and among them is safety."

Friedrich Nietzsche said..."Believe me! The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously!"

Mario Andretti said..."If things seem under control, you are just not going fast enough."

Seth Godin said..."The lesson of the cow is worth repeating: Safe is Risky."

Robin Sharma said..."Run towards your fears ....face fear fast."

Karl Wallenda said... "Life is being on the wire, everything else is just waiting."

Helen Keller said..."Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."

Robert F. Kennedy said..."Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly."

T.S Eliot said.."Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go."

William James said... "It is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all."

Peter Drucker said... "People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year."

Dennis Waitely said..The only person who never makes mistakes is the person who never does anything."

Mark Twain said..."Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

Ralph Waldo Emerson...."Do not be too timid and squeamish about your reactions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better."

Napolean Bonaparte said...""The most dangerous moment comes with victory."

D.E.B Dubois said..."The most important thing to remember is this: To be ready at any moment to give up what you are for what you might become."

Pear S. Buck said..."The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible -- and achieve it, generation after generation."

Like these quotes? Like the idea of living dangerously? Excellent!! Be sure to visit my gallery and get some Good Stuff!


Not a fan yet? Please....by all means..Keep reading

Wow...So ,what all these notable people are saying is, in essence the same thing. What is it about this dangerous living stuff that has so many prominent individiuals exhalting it's value and necessity? Don't you find it interesting that so many different people have the same underlining message about living. Now, I don't know for sure why it's a common theme, but I do have a hunch. So let's explore this hunch a bit shall we?

To begin with, I think that we are seeing these more notable historic & successful figures espouce this idea......well, perhaps it's because these words are the very gem which they used to elevate themselves into their exhaulted position, where we (the non-exhaulted) now want to know why they said it.

Or, it's because they lived pretty decent lives and can only imagine how much more amazing it would have been had they took more chances and made more of those intrigueing dangerous decisions.

Another reason probably has to do with what I liken to what Brian Tracy said on one of his Audio Tapes about Success. According to Brian Tracy.
of Brian Tracy International, the theme has a lot to do with the law of averages. This principle is pretty much the notion that, If you swing at the ball enough times with enough intensity, sooner or later you are bound to hit a homerun.

I like the way that sounds. So pretty much his idea suggests how taking risks is much like a baseball game, but unlike baseball though you won't be out after 3 strikes. You can keep on swinging and swinging.

Another possibliity that I've come up with in studying the lives of great and outstanding people, is that every single one of them has been a failure. In fact they were perhaps the biggest failures of their time and in what they did, but of course they were also to become the biggest winner's. A terrific real world example is Thomas Edison. He experimented at least 10, 000 times and probably had just as many failures. However, instead of looking at these failures as set- backs or unwanted occurrences, he looked at them as answers. Yes, he pushed forward and lived dangerously compared to his contemporaries and found the answers to his questions. This of course was progress because each failure experienced would become to Mr. Edison, hints to his current progress on the goals he was moving towards. So for everytime he failed, he would learn more about what that answer couldn't be, and would be privy to that fact the next time around and naturally, would never have to try that particular approach again. So, consequetly his dangerous, failure seeking antics would bring himself closer and closer to his desired result.

Let's take another look at all those movies and adventure books and all the fun those characters are having. Seriously consider this...when was the last time you or a friend or family member had an experience remotely close to what we see or read for entertainment. Heck we are paying big bucks to those darn vicarious venues for a reason. I believe that art immitates reality, or better yet, it immitates a reality that has passed. It seems the days of adventure and amazing acts of greatness have be resigned to books, tales, or movies.

Look, we have an industry that has revenues larger than many countries, perhaps we should take a long deep look into the situation and wonder why. It's my belief, that the primary reason behind all of this escapism is because the majority of us are too involved in riskless living. We are afraid...we are scaredy cats, weasels, whiners, and I'd even go so far as saying we are mostly lazy. So we get our "kicks" and all the risky and dangerous stuff hand-fed to us in movies and on the boob tube. It's scary stuff and we best be careful, lest we become a society of passive watchers. So, let's change things up a bit, let's take some control of our lives and create our own movie. Seriously what could happen?

Ask yourself this question right now? If my life were a movie...would I want to watch it? Most reading this are probaly thinking to themselves...HECK NO!!

So what are you going to do about it?


Last I checked, the outcomes of what could happen were ultimately only good, and I have 2 pretty resonable reasons why.

1.) Let's see,.... if you live dangerously now, you could end up with an amazing future, and you could have a good time creating it by being adventurous and going after "that promotion, or striking up a conversation with "that girl", or making up your mind to start pursuing entrepreneurial activities so you can own "that business", and ultimately have "that life" you've always wanted.

2.) You gotta be kidding me...if you lived to your fullest now, and began being mindful of doing courageous acts throughout the day, challenging your status quo to make decsions that were not safe but rather life affirming.. YOU would have one hell of an existence. You'd make Socrates envious and you'd might even be able to make Jim Morrison proud.

"A man really becomes a man when he accepts total responsibility - he is responsible for whatsoever he is. This is the first courage, the greatest courage."

"This I call maturity of mind: when somebody comes to the point of looking at life without any questions, and simply dives into it with courage and fearlessness." Osho

So.....when are you going to start living dangerously? When are you going to Make Your Own Destiny?