I Dare You…

It seems to me that we are getting worse and worse at really going for an opportunity and doing something truly daring. I know for a fact that the most daring I have ever been was when I was away travelling a few years ago. Every opportunity that came up, I thought “well, I’m never going to get the chance to do this again, and I’ll kick myself if I don’t!” and, as a result, I came back from Africa having done a 15,000ft sky dive, flown a microlight and done the biggest gorge swing in the world, amongst other equally thrilling yet potentially dangerous things!

The rush that I got from these things was not just the adrenalin from throwing myself into freefall out of a plane at 15,000ft, but also the independance and self-assurance that I got from doing something, despite being scared to try it.

I think of myself as a fairly independent person; I look after myself, pay my bills, cook, clean etc. I plan my days and keep track of where I am meant to be and the things I need to have done every day but I asked myself today, when was the last thing I did something truly daring?

I think we all need to grab opportunities more. Tell the guy in that coffee shop that you’d really like to meet him for a drink sometime, ask the girl you pass in the tube station every day on a date, stand up for yourself, make a complaint if its needed; whats the worst that will happen?

In any contemporary chick flick, there is always a point where someone goes out of their way to say or do something truly daring. The guy speeds after a new york taxi on a motorbike to tell the girl (generally some worrying flawless woman with “natural” blonde hair) that he loves her. The girl who has been too shy to say through the whole film, turns to the lead male (tall, dark and handsome, of course, potentially with some kind of charming accent) and telling him, without and reason to to believe it will be reciprocated, that she likes him.

Needless to say, the girl in the taxi will tell the driver to stop, probably on a bridge or clifftop, and tell the guy she loves him too (cue a panoramic snog shot). The tall, handsome boy will obviously tell her she likes him too, take her in his arms and ask her to be his forever (or another equally cheesy and potentially unrealistic line!)

Why is it that we only have this much daring in a film whose concept and plot line was probably written by someone who had spent far too much time in a dark room to have much of a grasp of reality? Why do we take more risks away when we miss opportunities at home all the time? why are we too shy to saw what we think?

Let’s have the guts to say what we feel or what we want and do things we are scared of, without a cheesy underscore and a clifftop view. Let’s realise the opportunities that pass us by at home that we would never dream of missing were we away.

I want that rush again. I want that feeling of knowing that I just did something with a risk to it, and even though I was scared to do it, I did it anyway!

Obviously, standing up for yourself or asking someone out has significantly less physical risk to it than jumping out of a plane and freefalling with no visible soft place to land, but I know I would still get that rush, that thrill, that self-indlugence to be able to say to myself “I did it!”

So, after thinking about this today, I dare you. I dare you to do something you wouldn’t normally do. Say something you have been meaning to say but have never had the bottle. Go and ask the girl out. Tell the guy he has a smile that makes your knees weak. Do something you would only ever see in a move. Complain. Stand up. Forget why you were scared.

Do something daring today. I dare you!