Kay:
Heyo Questers, welcome back it’s Tuesday. This is episode 342. It happens to be April 27th. We have a quote for you today from a little-known woman with a big controversy behind her, but we’ll get into the who after we tell you what her quote for us today is, “If you don’t risk anything you risk even more.” And this was said by the American novelist, Erica Jong.
Shi:
Erica, who was a novelist, a poet, and she’s particularly known for her 1973 novel entitled Fear of Flying, and the book became famously controversial for its attitudes toward female sexuality and figured prominently in the development of the second wave of feminism. If you read the reviews of the book or kind of the synopsis, it’s not as racy as it sounds, but for 50 years ago it was pretty dang racy.
Kay:
I mean, they couldn’t even show a pregnant woman on TV 50 years ago or any kind of a skirt that came above the knees. The first time a woman’s knee was shown on television, it was like a moment. So, Eric Jong being on this front end, but she’s certainly risked quite a bit in putting these ideas out there 50 years ago. As she says, in his quote, “If you don’t risk anything, you actually risk even more.”
Shi:
It kind of reminds me of this idea that you experience pain either way. Pain is part of life and so there are two kinds of pain, the pain of regret or the pain of discipline. So, you can either be disciplined now and feel the pain, or you can take it easy now and feel the pain of regret later. But pain is not optional. It is required, it is mandatory and it’s very reminiscent of this quote that for me, as I think about if you don’t risk anything you risk even more because you were really kind of philosophically examining why are you here? You get this little blip of time and the massive magnitude of the world and history and humanity and all of this and what you’re given is the small blip of time and it’s yours to choose with it and to be bold and to be daring and to try things out and to fall down and to embarrass yourself and figure things out and maybe make a drop towards positivity at some point in your legacy and in your life. But if you never risk that, you’ll never be able to give that drop and then boop, your blip is over, and you haven’t done anything.
Kay:
Well, oftentimes when we consider risk, we are thinking of the things that will particularly happen to us if we move forward and take a particular action. So, this quote is giving you the opportunity to maybe flip that script a little bit and think about what wouldn’t happen in my life if I choose to step back from my greatness and back into my comfort and not take the risk and not move forward, because sometimes getting risky means that you join a networking group when you’re not a natural networker or maybe sometimes getting risky means you quit your career to start a new one. Now of course there are all kinds of risks associated and you might think, well, someone will do that if they have a dream or a passion, but when you’re standing on the edge of that cliff, it’s really difficult sometimes to take that risk and that leap without knowing whether you’re going to reach the other side or hit the bottom.
Shi:
If you’re averse to risk, you know, Jim Rohn talks about: life is risky. Here’s how risky it is. No one gets out alive. We’re all already risking a lot just by being alive and Erica really telling us here, you risk even more by not risking anything. You risk dying, having left your dreams, your ideas, your passions, your purpose inside and unexpressed. Out of the billions of percent of you being here, you’re a pretty phenomenal creation to get to be here and have this experience and to really slap the cosmic forces in the face, by not doing anything with that gift. It is a risk I don’t know if I’m ready to take.
Kay:
Well, don’t you slap those cosmic forces and take Erica John’s advice in today’s quote where she says, “If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.”
Shi:
Alright, you’ve got a Risk Quest today.
Kay:
That’s some risky business.
Shi:
Right. “I’ll take them off the shelf and sit and listen to them by myself.” Of course, referencing the famous Tom Cruise movie, Risky Business with my favorite song.
Kay:
We’ve got to go get the socks.
Shi:
…of all time, where he slides in on his socks. We love to do the risky business slide, but that is not your quest today. Your quest is when you see an opportunity arise to either play it safe or take a leap of faith. We want you to choose the leap and see what reward that risk might bring. Are you ready?
Kay & Shi:
Let’s quest!