What would life be like--if you never took a risk?

     That's from the back cover blurb of a book called Risking by David Viscott M.D. I just find that question so provocative—and helpful.
     For we all want to be safe. It's our natural state. For life is precarious. Make the wrong decision, you could be dead. So safe is a good thing. Limit risk. That's another good thing.
     And safety is a good thing. We all need it. But then again, what would your life be like if you never took a risk?

On a losing streak? Read this.

     There's nothing profound here. Just the simple fact of life that everything changes. You know it's true. And so if you're on a losing streak, guess what, it has to change because nothing stays the same in this world.

Is goodness enough?

     Seems simple. Yes. But is it?
     Some years back my ninety-four-year-old aunt was in a nursing home, and she developed a severe case of pneumonia. I really thought she was dying, and I really wanted to visit her, but having frequently gotten bronchitis for years I was dreadfully hesitant. Finally I talked to another aunt who said, "When you do something good, God protects you." That decided it for me. I went.
     I comforted my sick aunt. I stroked her forehead as she gasped for breath. I tried to turn away when she hacked. I was very afraid, but I was hanging on to what my other aunt had said about Divine protection when doing something good.
     To make a long story short. My sick aunt recovered. And I got the worst case of bronchitis (nearly needing hospitalization) I'd ever gotten.

Succeed by seeing the invisible.

     "He's got eyes in the back of his head."
     The Hindus talk about "the third eye."
     And then there's "second sight" or clairvoyance.
     And some people sleep with their eyes open (and so clearly, the ability to see is not solely in the eyeball).
     In other words, there is a lot of information out there (granted, many would call it speculation) that we can see more, perceive more than what we can just with our senses. And I think we can.

Always right on the edge of success yet no further?

     It's maddening—being right on the edge of succeeding and yet never breaking through. Here's a quote from Deepak Chopra:

...we were created to achieve our aspirations rather than simply circle them.

     And one from the golfer Arnold Palmer:

I wasn't going to live a life of dear and near misses.

     One more (for the younger generation) from the musical group Faith No More's song "Epic":

You want it all but you can't have it/ It's in your face but you can't grab it

     So one thing is clear—the frustration of being close but shut out of success is brutal. But what can you do about it?

If you try to please everybody you'll end up a nobody.

     Everybody wants you to be a certain way. "Be like Mike" was a slogan for a TV commercial. Your parents want you to live this way. Your friends want you to live another. So and so didn't like that you did this. This one didn't like that.
     If you lived the way everybody wanted you to live, you would be out of your mind in no time flat.

On people who are always late.

     Politics aside, they say President Clinton (and this may have to be updated in a couple of years to be clear about which one) was always late to appointments, whereas President George W. Bush was always impeccably on time. The speculation went that Clinton made people wait to show them who the 'big dog' was, who had the most power. It was a message.
     But what sort of message does being chronically late send?