On The Edge

This is a picture of me standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon, about 150 feet past the security fence out on a ledge. I have never had more fun. This morning, while dancing dangerously close to the edge (in life) I came across some thoughts and new perspectives that added some fuel to the fire and some thump to the soundtrack:

If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space.—Anonymous

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.--Anais Nin

Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.--Sir Cecil Beaton

Creative people who can't help but explore other mental territories are at greater risk, just as someone who climbs a mountain is more at risk than someone who just walks along a village lane.--R.D. Laing

Creative risk taking is essential to success in any goal where the stakes are high. Thoughtless risks are destructive, of course, but perhaps even more wasteful is thoughtless caution which prompts inaction and promotes failure to seize opportunity.--Gary Ryan Blair

Don't be afraid to take a big step. You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps.--David Lloyd George

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

Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers.--Mignon McLaughlin

The galleries are full of critics. They play no ball, they fight no fights. They make no mistakes because they attempt nothing. Down in the arena are the doers. They make mistakes because they try many things. The man who makes no mistakes lacks boldness and the spirit of adventure. He is the one who never tries anything. His is the brake on the wheel of progress. And yet it cannot be truly said he makes no mistakes, because his biggest mistake is the very fact that he tries nothing, does nothing, except criticize those who do things.--Gen. David M. Shoup

God grants us an uncommon life to the degree we surrender our common one.--Max Lucado

If you don't risk anything, you risk even more.--Erica Jong

I've found that luck is quite predictable. If you want more luck, take more chances. Be more active. Show up more often.--Brian Tracy

Life isn't worth living unless you're willing to take some big chances and go for broke.--Eliot Wiggington

The man who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure thing boat never get far from the shore.--Dale Carnegie

No one ever achieved greatness by playing it safe.--Harry Gray

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.--Samuel Johnson

Often the difference between a successful man and a failure is not one's better abilities or idea, but the courage that one has to bet on his ideas, to take a calculated risk--and to act.--Maxwell Maltz

Our lives improve only when we take chances--and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves.--Walter Anderson

Progress always involves risk; you can't steal second base and keep your feet on first.--Frederick Wilcox

Revolutionaries don't get job security.--Ruby Dee

A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.--Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper

To win without risk is to triumph without glory.--Pierre Corneille

Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity; they seem more afraid of life then of death.--James F. Byrnes

What you risk reveals what you value.--Jeanette Winterson

Yes, risk-taking is inherently failure-prone. Otherwise, it would be called sure-thing taking.--Tim McMahon

You've got to go out on a limb sometimes because that's where the fruit is.--Will Rogers