Is it possible to learn to be less "safe"? I'm always sensible, always careful, always plan ahead, never spontaneous, never take crazy risks. I bore even myself. But is that something I can even change?
When I hear that Taylor Swift song 22 I think, "I will never ever look like bad news," and it makes me really sad.
>>16621196
>How to fuck up my life just to look cool?
FTFY
I think you can work on becoming a more lively and spontaneous person in everyday conversations without becoming less safe or less careful.
>>16621196
To an extent, yes, you can change it. Just don't do known high-risk shit like playing in traffic or huffing bleach and you'll be fine.
Do something you wouldn't normally do, and where the outcome is unknown, rather than stuff you know for a fact is just a dumb, bad decision. The first is exciting; the second will just leave you hating yourself in the morning.
If you don't know where to start, just pick something. If you're anal retentive like me and really can't pick something, make a mental 1-10 "dangerousness" scale with 1 being where you are and 10 being, idk, stealing an armoured car or something. Then do something that you'd consider to be a 2. Then maybe next week try a 3 or a 4.
There's a lot to be said for playing things safe most of the time - for one thing, it sure helps cushion the fall if you do take a risk and it goes bad on you. But there's a lot to be said for just saying "fuck it" and going for it.
Yes, it's as simple as overextending the boundaries of your comfort zone. Whatever that zone is to you.
>>16621212
I'm actually fucking up my life by never doing anything. I miss a lot of opportunities by hesitating too much.
>>16621222
This is really helpful, thank you. I don't think it's realistically possible for me to do something actually dangerous; I've like never even taken a drink of alcohol because I know there's a family history of alcoholism. I have seen an old letter from my mom from when I was 4 where she tells my grandmother I was self-conscious about wearing red and standing out. At four years old!
Buying/wearing some clothes that are not totally bland and featureless might be a good 2 to try, actually...
>>16621196
ingest lsd-25
>>16621245
See, you found a good place to start already.
Another thing - having a family history of alcoholism doesn't guarantee that you will become an alcoholic. It's your choice whether to use it or not, and if you decide not to, that's fine. Honestly though...if you start drinking, and you're worried about whether you're going to become an alcoholic, then the chances of you actually becoming one are relatively slim, because you'll be looking for the warning signs and you'll likely spot them a mile off. If you're the kind of person who tends to police yourself anyway, you'll probably do it with booze too.
>>16621196
If you are an extreme case of playing it safe, like I was, you may need to be more heavy handed with trying to change it.
For me a lifetime of playing video games and religiously reloading a save after a minor failure has changed by travelling on my own, learning martial arts and riding motorcycles.
To learn to take risks you have to take as many as possible.
