“You have to risk going too far to discover just how far you can really go.”
I've grown to experience my greatest moments always come when I allow myself to risk. When you hear risk the immediate response is usually danger, or failure. Now it is not typical for people to want to put themselves through that but the world was pretty much built on failure. It is trial and error which makes people learn and grow. There will always be more to learn but I have noticed that lessons are best learned on your own. People can give you as much advice as they want and you can chose whether or not to hear them, but in the end no matter what anyone says your still most likely going to do what you want.
A few years ago I was shooting a movie in Mumbai. The lead actor in the film was a man Anupam Kher. He owns the biggest acting school in the city. He asked me if I wanted to give a guest lecture to some of the students. I could have easily said, well I am not really prepared and denied this. I had absolutely no time to prepare with an open auditorium full of students and an empty stage with a chair and a small table with a glass of water on it. He said you have two hours! When this hit me the sight of that chair and that stage grew eerie and distant yet magnetic and caused a nervous charge throughout my whole body. "Two hours, about what?, What do I say? How do I start? What if I am boring or don't know how to answer them?" All these thoughts arose in me, but then I said well you have nothing to lose so just go for it. Take a risk at them hating you, how bad can it be. I must say that experience was amazing. I shocked myself at how much information I knew about acting and the industry. I was able to answer all their questions and make them laugh. It was so much fun the time flew by and before I knew it they were cutting me off because I was going over! At this point is when I realized I would love to teach, it felt so good to share my well earned knowledge with other growing minds. When I returned to the City I told my acting coach and he was ecstatic! He promised to teach me to teach during my own training, and thats exactly what he did. Before I knew it I was teaching my own acting class and still do it till this day. If I hadn't taken that risk things could be very different for me today. This is just one way I have discovered a piece of my future through a risk.
Another example of a risk I took didn't turn out as rewarding, but I still learned something. I once worked on an audition where the girl was coming home from the bar and gets in an argument with her one night stand gone wrong. I figured she would be hyped up and drunk. I worked on alcohol with my senses and recreated it in myself, while I ran down the streets of time square singing and blaring Lil Wayne in my headphones. I thought this would be appropriate energy for my audition. It was a highly ballsy risky move but I went for it all out. I think it was way too much for them and I was so in it that when they gave me correction I could barely adjust, I was just crazy from beginning to end. It didn't hit me till I was about 10 minutes out of there when I realized I really blew it! In this I learned to have control over my work instead of letting it control me. If I didn't go in there like that I wouldn't have been able to learn the lesson I learned.
I learned a great lesson of risk in a past relationship as well. All my friends told me he wasn't right for me and to get out, but I wasn't having it. I was risking my heart in hopes that I could save someone or help them. In the end I went through hell and back and my friends were all right, but I wouldn't have had the experience to gauge my future if I had never gone through it.
We can never regret our pasts we can only use them to grow. We must make mistakes before we get it right. The gymnast must risk the fall to learn the flip, and the designer must risk a bad garment to figure out how to make it right. The artist must risk his brush stroke to feel out his painting. The couple must risk their hearts to find the love. The yogi must push the posture to progress his practice. The musician must risk ridicule before he makes the hit. A mother must risk her body to have the baby. The bird must fall out of the tree to open its wings.
Now we cannot take this extremely literal. Don't risk your life if you know you can die.
You see, this world we live in we only have one life and in the end thats really the only thing we will ever have as our own. Our one body, and mind. If we look to the past generations the people who succeeded the most took the most risk and when they failed they didn't give up. I believe you should always believe in yourself and don't let yourself care what anyone else says or thinks.
Take advantage of these few years we have to fill our lives with whatever we please. If you sit in the safety zone forever you may never realize your potential. Be an example for others around you, inspiration is contagious and you may not only change your life but you could be helping everyone around you more than you'll ever realize!
I am risking posting this right now because some people may judge me for it. I have gotten mixed comments from people constantly. Some people love what I write and some people joke about it. I must say I don't enjoy sarcastic comments about me thinking I'm buddha or something, but it doesn't bother me either because I don't think I am Buddha I think I am just like everyone else- no better or worse really-I just feel the need to express myself in this way and there is nothing wrong with that. If someone is sending you negative energy you need to realize it isn't you its them, so you can't take it to heart. Really you should wish those people the best more then others because they are the ones that need a boost of light.
