Gut instincts.

I recently came across a website titled, "Advanced Riskology."

The author, Tyler, is from Portland, Oregon, 26 years old and a writer, adventurer and risk taker. He has thousands of hits a day on his website and comments galore as he talks about stepping outside of your comfort zone and doing something that is "risky."

He created a list that contains things on it that collectively less than 1% of the world do. Things like skydiving (check!), scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef, flying an airplane (check), steer a ship (check), sell a business for $1,000,000, raise $250,000 for charity, found a non-profit (contradicts the other sale, no?) and on and on. If you want to check out the full list - go here.

It's funny reading the comments and how critical people are of other people's dreams and desires. Sometimes the comments are supportive and others point out the why you shouldn't do this - you should do that. Unfortunately, if you are willing to put your dreams out there then there's always going to be someone who will tell you can't do something.

Why is that?

I digress.

I posed Tyler a question in the comments. I asked if your intuition, hunch, dreams or whatever you want to label them point you in the direction of doing a so called risk, then is it really a risk? Or is it more about trusting yourself? And trusting yourself, to me, seems like the biggest risk of all.

Have you ever been faced with a situation and your gut immediately points you in a direction, only to be bombarded with rational thought and reason into another direction? How often do you follow that gut instinct? How many times have you made that rational decision, only to discover later that your initial hunch was spot on, then kicked yourself for not listening to yourself? How many times do you have to learn this lesson before you start listening to your gut?

"The greatest risk of all is the one not taken."

Personally, I've been listening to my gut more and more lately and it's opening up doors I never knew were closed.

Side note - it's been a LONG rest week. I'm starting to get antsy to get back on the bike (a good sign!). Can you tell by the subjects I bring up? Yeah, thought so.