25 quotes about taking risks and thinking for yourself

I'm on the brink of taking a big risk in my life, and I'm really scared of what people are going to think of me when I take it.

That's all I can say right now. But until I can say more, here are 25 quotes about taking risks and thinking for yourself. Because I need them. And maybe you do too.

1. "If you don't try, you'll never know." ~ Coldplay

2. "If you risk nothing, then you risk everything." ~ Geena Davis

3. "It's not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It's because we dare not venture that they are difficult." ~ Seneca

4. "Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing." ~ Warren Buffett

5. "The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision." ~ Maimonides

6. "The 3 C's of life: choices, chances and changes. You must make a choice to take a chance or your life will never change." ~ Unknown

7. "Ten years from now, make sure you can say you chose your life, you didn't settle for it." ~ Mandy Hale

8. "Always follow your gut instinct, even if you do it a little late. It's better to renege and risk being judged than it is to do something you don't want to do because you're afraid of how it will look." ~ Lori Deschene

9. "A wise man makes his own decisions; an ignorant man follows public opinion." ~ Chinese Proverb

10. "Let go of the need to control the outcome. Trust the process. Trust your intuition. Trust yourself." ~ Unknown

11. "Stop worrying about what you have to lose and start focusing on what you have to gain." ~ Unknown

12. "Fear, uncertainty and discomfort are your compasses toward growth." ~ Celestine Chua

13. "If it's still in your mind, it's worth taking the risk." ~ Paulo Coelho

14. "Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised." ~ Denis Waitley

15. "Your current safe boundaries were once unknown frontiers." ~ Unknown

16. "Excellence can be obtained if you care more than others think is wise, risk more than others think is safe, dream more than others think is practical, and expect more than others think is possible." ~ Unknown

17. "Life is too short to waste time waiting for other people's approval on how you live it." ~ Steve Maraboli

18."Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner." ~ Lao Tzu

19. "You can't always please everybody, but you can do what makes you happy and just hope that those around you will be happy for you." ~ Robert Tew

20. "If you really want to live your life to the fullest and realize your greatest potential, you must be willing to run the risk of making some people mad. People may not like what you do, people may not like how you do it, but these people are not living your life. You are!" ~ Iyanla Vanzant

21. "What you think of yourself is much more important than what other people think of you." ~ Seneca

22."Lean too much on other people's approval and it becomes a bed of thorns." ~ Tehyi Hsieh

23. "Nobody's going to save somebody who won't change. It's time to be brave." ~ Christina Perri

24. "What other people think of you is none of your business." ~ Unknown

25. "Take risks: If you win, you will be happy. If you lose, you will be wise." ~ Unknown

Good luck taking your own risks, my friends. I'm rooting for you.

<3 Madison

Anger management, stress management, life management

In case the title doesn't give it away, I've had a lot on my mind and a lot on my plate lately. I'm pretty sure I'm having a quarter-life crisis, which seems fitting, considering my 25th birthday is actually tomorrow. (And I started this blog when I was 19!)

My Thought Catalog editor Kendra Syrdal recently wrote something about anger that really resonated with me. It was powerful and timely because I've been struggling to keep my own anger under control lately. I've become slightly more volatile in my day-to-day life, and I believe it is largely because I am neglecting parts of myself that need attention. It's easier to just lash out at the closest thing causing me the slightest bit of stress, whether it be a cheap ice cream scooper or a lazy coworker, than it is to slow down and ask myself where my anger is really coming from. Usually, it ends up having nothing to do with whatever it's being directed towards.

Rambling aside, I wanted to share a little bit of Kendra's post for anyone who may be having the same problem.  

"Anger is an easy emotion. Anger is a lot like love, hunger or fear. It's impulsive, it happens fast, it's easily accessible, it's one of those feelings that is palpable and tangible and we feel like we can and should reach out and grab it with both hands. Anger though, isn't the most rational of our feelings. Anger often steamrolls things like rational, empathy or tact. Which are necessary! Anger - is not.

I was a very angry person for a long, long time. Like stupidly angry. And I was always even angrier when I felt like I wasn't being heard. But one day I realized, people don't like to listen when you're yelling. So I took a step back. I calmed down. I learned to manage my anger. And then, when my heart rate dropped and my blood pressure leveled out, if I still wanted to say something, I would approach it levelly. With reason. With facts. With a discussion in mind.

And you know what happened?

I started being able to change people's minds. I started seeing humanity. I found common ground. Or, at the very least, I had discussions instead of fights. And discussions go places and end up with thoughts and notions and things that resonate. Fights just end with bruises and hurt feelings and two people who resent each other in the long run." 

I love that. It's so universal and so true. I've always been ashamed of my anger and viewed it as a highly negative emotion. But like any other emotion, it is valid. It's nothing to be ashamed of as long as you react to it in a healthy, constructive way. And even still, we all slip up from time to time. You have to forgive yourself. 

I'm at what I believe to be a critical point in my life right now, which is why I've been experiencing this onslaught of heavy emotions like anger, stress, anxiety and sadness. I want to do the right things, and sometimes we have no way of knowing what's right or wrong until we take the risks and see for ourselves. 

I want to wake up every morning with a sense of purpose and passion. I want to believe that at any time, I can make the choice to do what feels right to me - to do what I want without feeling as though I've committed a crime. 

But I, like most people, am responsible for a lot of things now. I have more to worry about than just myself. And maybe that's why I'm so angry. Maybe that's why I'm so stressed. 

I don't have a suitable conclusion for this hodge podge of words and thoughts. All I know is that something needs to change. And maybe that something is me.   

<3 Madison