How Risk Taking and Thinking Outside the Box are Such Effective and Useful Tactics.

(Told via the story of the little bald frog)

Well well well - I just signed up for this blog as a way to express the things about the world and life (from my and only my perspective) that I percieve. When signing up for this blog, I filled out my user description, and within it there was a question saying something along the lines of: "The children are all waiting, tell us the story about the bald frog and the wig". Although there ended up being a ridiculously small (150 characters) maximum limit to this story...I was indeed impressed with blogger.com for doing something interesting and out of the ordinary that majority of the time confuses people.....those kinds of things are good...for everyone. The very small limit of characters leads me to believe that I misinterpreted the way in which they expected people to answer that question but.....I really don't care. I like my way better. So, I'm going to pretend they were presenting a random story topic which users are to write a story about to help describe themselves to others. Along those lines...

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There once was a little frog. Soon after its birth, this frog realized that, like all of his friends, parents, and siblings, he was also born with no hair. There was, however, something that this little frog was born with that NONE of his other frog pals had....and that was....the desire for and motivation to get that hair. The little bald frog hopped everywhere, trying on leaf after leaf, brush after brush, but NOTHING would stay on top of his head in a way that would look nice....a task that was made especially difficult when he went under-water :).

The little frog went to his parents and told them about his problem. With a little chuckle at his predicament, they said to him in a wise and overbearing tone: "Little frog, don't you worry about not having any hair. No one else has any hair, so you're not being isolated from any group by being bald, and truth be told, you're beautiful no matter what kind of hair you do or do not have, and we love you very much either way!" So, after that, the little frog hopped away, happy as can be that it had such loving parents.

However, soon the desire again presented itself, and it did not go away. So, the little frog, going against the advice of his loving parents, continued to search for a wig. Eventually, after months of work, he was able to fashion a fitting wig out of very rare waterproof leaves topped with brush to make it look like a nice head of hair. When he came into his group of friends again with this new wig, ALL of the lady frogs were immediately in love with him, practically worshiping him, and all of the male frogs were jealous of him, wishing they had been the first to make such a wig. He was a smart and moral frog, so he didn't take advantage of any of these people....instead simply following his own mind and doing what HE wanted to do for the rest of his life, obtaining similar results from every aspect of the way he lived.

The little frog lived happily ever after because of this very reason. It doesn't matter that his parents would love him whether he had a wig or not, he wanted a wig and knew that it would be a positive change to his appearance, so he didn't let the little demeaning speech from his parents or even the advice from his friends deter him. All of these other frogs were thinking squarely inside the box, too afraid to try anything different. Because, in lieu of these obstacles, the little bald frog was strong, intelligent, and free minded enough to complete his goals, he reaped the benefits from taking a risk and trying something new.
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Now, I liked this little story time break because, it gave me a great idea for explaining a perception I've had about life for my first post. You see, it has always been not only an interest, but a personal goal of mine to do things that are a little risky, a little crazy, and a little weird or unnecessary in others eyes. This is not for the sole reason of looking weird or unique to other people, but instead for a multitude of "real" reasons. Since I don’t want to make this post all that long, I’ll just touch on two big ones, and maybe add more in comments:

First off,
I have yet to find someone in my life that has a life that I completely idolize. Certain people (I can think of one or two off the top of my head) I do idolize many features in, but the fact of the matter remains that not only do I not idolize anyone’s life completely, but the overwhelming majority of the time I simply feel bad for people due to the way they live their lives, or find their lives simply pathetic from my point of view (not to say it isn’t a perfectly happy life to them, though...). Due to this, I see no reason whatsoever why I should worry about looking weird to the majority of people.

To help clarify this, let's take a quick look at the idea (not the definition) of the word 'weird'. Words can be defined, but then somehow end up meaning something completely different to most people who hear it, so let's focus on the general idea of the word to avoid confusion or misconception. In general, I think that the word weird means someone who differs from the majority of other people in such a way that causes them to be outcasted by a large group. This “weirdness” can be physically or mentally, I.E. Physical: A severely mangled cripple on the “negative” side, a supermodel on the “positive” side, or Mental: A raving lunatic schizophrenic on the “negative” side, and Einstein or Newton on the positive side. Another for instance would be the bald frog. Hi might have been (probably was) considered weird, not for being bald, of course, but instead for working on his wig and being obsessed with getting hair all of the time. The other frogs might have thought he was dumb for spending all of his time trying to make a wig....I mean...frogs don't have hair...how the hell did he even get that idea, much less why is he working so hard on something that seems like it will be useless....what an idiot frog, right?

Well, the answer is no. If you answered yes, then you, in actuality, are more likely the idiot. The frog is only considered weird for working on that wig because it is not commonplace....he might be the first frog to do it. But that, by absolutely no means, makes it wrong or dumb. As you can see in the conclusion of the frog's story, it turned out for the best at the end because the wig actually helped him in his social circle and made him feel better about himself simultaneously, meaning it was the “correct” choice (I use quotes and parenthesis a lot….please bear with me).

So, weird is really just like saying "You don't comply with what I'm used to perceiving from observing people". If, however, you (like me) are not looking to become "like" any other people, then you are doing exactly the right thing. Follow your own mind, and find out what is best for you. Those things that you choose are best for you seeming like weird decisions to other people is actually a good identifier that you're doing stuff right, in our case. If majority of people didn't think it was weird, it would mean that they all did things like that also, and if almost all of the time you do not like what the majority of other people do, then you are on the right path by seeming weird to them.

Secondly,
Risk is a key factor in success. Think about it, if there is a goal that you unfailingly want to achieve, in this example the frog getting hair of some kind, you never have to worry about screwing up risks. If that frog took the risk of spending months trying to find the right kind of wig only to find out that there is no existent leaf in the world that was waterproof, leaving his idea in shambles, he could gather up his things and rebuild his idea in another way to succeed. All he lost was time, and that time can’t really be considered lost since without the learning experience of failing with that first attempt, he never would have know that he needed to go on to another completely different attempt.

So, he needs to either find a new way to make hair (hair growth formulas….different types of paint or powders) that he thinks will work, or he needs to make his own waterproof wig, or he needs to find a way to do something else to himself that will get him to the same place that he wanted to achieve via the wig (better physical appearance, more friends, more sexual activity, whatever).

In other words, he fell off of his horse, gathered his things, and then promptly saddled back up and started off on a less bumpy path (alternative hair products)…..or maybe a way to make grind away at his current path thereby making it less bumpy (make his own waterproof wig) or maybe giving new shoes or shock absorbers to his horse to make it able to take the bumps better (finding an idea that would make him feel the same as if he got the wig). There are a multitude of solutions for any one problem, and any of them can work, you just need to focus on one.

This is the idea of risks being so important, and why it’s almost idiotic not to take them. If you truly want something, risk away, because the more you fail the more you will learn about that thing, and or what you want from it/out of it. Eventually, you will either loose motivation (meaning you didn’t want it badly enough…oh well….at least you tried!) or, you will succeed (yyyaaayyy).

Maybe on the next post I will talk more about what motivated the bald frog to complete his goals. Motivation is so important. Let me rephrase: Motivation is sooooooooooooooooooososoooooooooooooo (X 10000) important. Anyways, I'm sure I'll touch on what I think about that, soon.

I would like to mention that, if you are reading this blog, and find it interesting, and want to comment or better yet ask a question or get me to clarify something, please don't hesitate. Human interaction is one of the best ways to solve problems, as long as people interact the right way. Hmm, one day I'll have to make a post about that, too ;). Well then....have a nice day, everyone!