The Dignity of Risk
By Alison Colavecchia
9.16.02 (www.slowtwitch.com)
In life there are always two paths: the safe, more predictable one and the less travelled, risky one.
One of the greatest risks of all is to lay bare what is inside us—the stuff we’re not sure we want anyone to see or hear. To do so leaves us vulnerable to judgements, rejection and criticism. To take the risk of exposure and be respectfully and unconditionally accepted is, to me, one of the greatest gifts one human being can offer to another. It is the gift of dignity. In my view, it is also one of the greatest gifts of sport.
Sport does not protect us from ourselves. Rather it accepts us as we are, without judgement, without criticism. Sport provides us with a forum through which to grow and shine if we are willing to explore the possibility that we might fail, might have a limit. In return for pouring ourselves into whatever it is that we are pursuing, sport gives us a sampling of what it is like to live with dignity.
Within and around me there is no shortage of expectations around who I ought to be, how I ought to think and behave or which direction I ought to be headed. In the face of these, always have the choice to perform to the lowest level of expectation, stagnate or rise to my level of greatest potential. It is true that sometimes it feels as though the easiest thing to do is to do nothing or to do less than I'm capable of. Thinking this way, though, costs me greatly, for I become complacent. I begin to accept and expect less of myself. I am reduced to my lowest common denominator.
Experience and time are teaching me that in all areas of my life, the hardest things to do are very often the very things that I must do. If I am to become my best self I must take chances, tackle the hard stuff even at the risk of failing. My sporting life is helping me with this one. For as promised, just when I suspected I was weakening, to be out of the game, rejected, I have been welcomed back. I have been given the gift of dignity and grace for simply asking myself to go just a little further, just a little beyond where I previously thought myself capable. In exchange for putting myself at risk and rising to the occasion, I get to walk a little taller, feel a little more self- acceptance.
Indeed for learning to live a riskier life I get to hold my head up a little higher and look down a little less. The wonderful thing about sport is that it is not a respector of our position in the pack, it is an equal opportunity instructor. I am just as capable of personal growth whether I am in the front of the pack in the swim, middle of the pack on the bike or deep in the back of the pack on the run. For this opportunity, I need only stop protecting myself from the possibility that uncomfortable things might happen. I need only be a risk taker for a short while in order to continue along my path toward becoming my best self.
I have had this poem on my office wall and in my desk for almost a decade. I do not know who wrote it but in my old office it greeted every client who came through my door. It also daily bid me both good morning and goodnight. If I knew who wrote it I would provide appropriate kudos. Certainly if there is someone out there who knows who did, I would be grateful for the name.
“Opportunity for growth carries with it the possibility of failure. Accompanying every endeavor is the element of risk. If growth truly implies change for improvement, then it must also carry with it the chance that there will be no change, no improvement, or even failure. When a person’s environment is over-protected in such a manner that there is little or no chance for failure, then in reality there is little or no chance for real or significant success. To deprive someone of the opportunity for significant achievement because of an associated element of risk is to deprive them of their potential for growth toward a self-sufficient, progressive, and dignified state of life.”
Still Tri’n
By Alison Colavecchia
9.16.02 (www.slowtwitch.com)
In life there are always two paths: the safe, more predictable one and the less travelled, risky one.
One of the greatest risks of all is to lay bare what is inside us—the stuff we’re not sure we want anyone to see or hear. To do so leaves us vulnerable to judgements, rejection and criticism. To take the risk of exposure and be respectfully and unconditionally accepted is, to me, one of the greatest gifts one human being can offer to another. It is the gift of dignity. In my view, it is also one of the greatest gifts of sport.
Sport does not protect us from ourselves. Rather it accepts us as we are, without judgement, without criticism. Sport provides us with a forum through which to grow and shine if we are willing to explore the possibility that we might fail, might have a limit. In return for pouring ourselves into whatever it is that we are pursuing, sport gives us a sampling of what it is like to live with dignity.
Within and around me there is no shortage of expectations around who I ought to be, how I ought to think and behave or which direction I ought to be headed. In the face of these, always have the choice to perform to the lowest level of expectation, stagnate or rise to my level of greatest potential. It is true that sometimes it feels as though the easiest thing to do is to do nothing or to do less than I'm capable of. Thinking this way, though, costs me greatly, for I become complacent. I begin to accept and expect less of myself. I am reduced to my lowest common denominator.
Experience and time are teaching me that in all areas of my life, the hardest things to do are very often the very things that I must do. If I am to become my best self I must take chances, tackle the hard stuff even at the risk of failing. My sporting life is helping me with this one. For as promised, just when I suspected I was weakening, to be out of the game, rejected, I have been welcomed back. I have been given the gift of dignity and grace for simply asking myself to go just a little further, just a little beyond where I previously thought myself capable. In exchange for putting myself at risk and rising to the occasion, I get to walk a little taller, feel a little more self- acceptance.
Indeed for learning to live a riskier life I get to hold my head up a little higher and look down a little less. The wonderful thing about sport is that it is not a respector of our position in the pack, it is an equal opportunity instructor. I am just as capable of personal growth whether I am in the front of the pack in the swim, middle of the pack on the bike or deep in the back of the pack on the run. For this opportunity, I need only stop protecting myself from the possibility that uncomfortable things might happen. I need only be a risk taker for a short while in order to continue along my path toward becoming my best self.
I have had this poem on my office wall and in my desk for almost a decade. I do not know who wrote it but in my old office it greeted every client who came through my door. It also daily bid me both good morning and goodnight. If I knew who wrote it I would provide appropriate kudos. Certainly if there is someone out there who knows who did, I would be grateful for the name.
“Opportunity for growth carries with it the possibility of failure. Accompanying every endeavor is the element of risk. If growth truly implies change for improvement, then it must also carry with it the chance that there will be no change, no improvement, or even failure. When a person’s environment is over-protected in such a manner that there is little or no chance for failure, then in reality there is little or no chance for real or significant success. To deprive someone of the opportunity for significant achievement because of an associated element of risk is to deprive them of their potential for growth toward a self-sufficient, progressive, and dignified state of life.”
Still Tri’n
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