Date:
Sunday, October 14th, 2012
Risk:
Counting the number of people I
interact with for one day, and then increasing the number of people I talk to
by three people for two days.
What’s
to Gain? Making more connections,
feeling more outgoing
What’s
at Stake? Feeling disappointment if I
don’t make the goal
Execution:
The first day that I counted my
interactions was a very social day for me, and I talked to 15 people. The
second day I reached my goal and talked to 18 people. The third day, I talked
to 7 people, though my goal was 21.
Analysis:
The first day of this risk, I didn’t
alter my social patterns at all and ended up talking to more people than I
thought I would have. On the second day, I also quite easily talked to many
people, but by the end of the day I hadn’t reached my quota so I decided to go
out on the town. It was quite easy and exhilarating to talk to people that I
wouldn’t normally have. In my mind I kept saying “Only __ more people to go!”
and I was excited to see if I could reach the goal. On the third day however, I
didn’t have anything planned and didn’t leave my house for most of the day.
Finally in the evening, I went for a walk with my roommate to try to boost up
my numbers, but only found three additional people to talk to. I think 21 was
an overwhelming number for me, and I didn’t want to talk to people for just any
reason (like asking for directions when I didn’t really need them, for example).
Instead, I wanted to actually interact meaningfully with more people per day.
Although I didn’t reach my quota on the
third day, I’ve realized something - This wasn’t a risk. This was a challenge.
This was a desire to become more open to talking to people. For me risk is
putting something at stake – doing something you’re not 100% comfortable with
in order to gain something that you value. I didn’t really put anything at risk
because I was 100% comfortable talking to everyone that I talked to! I’d like
to do another risk involving interacting with more people, but I want there to
be more at stake. I’m sure I’ll come up with something myself, but let me know
if you have any ideas! I’d love to hear suggestions.
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