Risk-taking

Audacity

Leaps of Faith

Risk-taking

Stepping Forward

These are all words I have been considering lately. Last night I got a Voxer message from a friend. In it he said he was proud of me for taking a risk. He said “It’s one thing to talk about taking a risk and another to actually do it.”

Funny enough I hadn’t considered what I was doing as a risk…until that moment.

If I look back over my personal and professional life I have taken a lot of risks I didn’t know were risks at the time. In my mind it was stepping forward. It was daring to ask a question or reach out or connect. But, those moments were small risks.

I guess the beauty of those moments was that I didn’t view them as risks so I didn’t have any trepidation.

Does saying it is a risk make it scarier?

Maybe.

Stepping forward sounds gentler and less intimidating.

We take a lot of risks as educators. Risks that are usually grounded with the best of intentions. Risks that sometimes pan out and risks that sometimes fall flat. But, we get up time and time again and continue to step forward for our students and our community.

If we never step forward, take a leap of faith, reach out we will never know the satisfaction that comes from the moments when our risks pay off. More importantly we will never know the beauty of the lessons learned when our risks fall flat.