Calculated Risks
By Corey Ann | February 19, 2010
Alo! It’s been a while, so here’s a quick catchup. Work at the rehab ended. Yoga training ended. (more on these in later posts) AshBlue continues. Yoga teaching develops.
Which leads me to the topic of this entry. Calculated risks: A chance of failure, the probability of which is estimated before some action is undertaken.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays I got a cool opportunity to teach at a place called 3rd and Church Healthcare in downtown Nashville. My first day was this past Tuesday and I had a full class - 7 people! Hurrah! People liked it, and I liked the people. I’m renting the space and the owners are doing the marketing. Risk level = minimum. But whoa, 7 people! “If anyone else came I’d have to turn them away. I should offer more class times,” goes my brain.
So I offer 11:15, 12:15, and 1:15 classes on Thursday. Wednesday I am getting emails and realizing, slowly, that what I have effectively done is split the 7 people into two smaller classes. Thursday’s class attendance - 3 people at 11:15, 3 people at 12:15, 0 people at 1:15.
However, I developed a relationship with a woman attending these classes. She wants to pay me to come to her office and do yoga for her coworkers (they have a bigger space and about 20 people interested). She wants class twice a week and right before my class at 3rd and Church. Risk Level = LOW.
Starting up classes feels risky. What if no one comes? What if too many come? What if someone comes who has no left middle toe? What if someone comes who wants to do ashtanga in a class of beginners? What if what if what if? What if I do all this work and don’t break even? Ok I’ve got a class, but crap I need mats! Who has mats?? And blocks!! And straps?! Wait, wait, who’s paying for all this??
See? See how these risks are all over the place? Thank goodness I’m doing/teaching yoga so much to keep me calm! Otherwise I think I’d be a lot more nervous now. My dear friend sent me a card that said, “Leap and the net will appear” (a Zen saying) and that is definitely how I’m feeling right now. However, I’m calculating this leap and it looks like there’s at least a net underneath me, if not some incredible birds flying behind me about to pick me up and take me higher. (I’m hoping for the latter!)
But it got me thinking about the calculated risks we take everyday. You know, like telling our friends we love them (low risk), eating at restaurants (medium risk), driving! (high risk). But we do these things most days without calculating. We’ve already come to our decision that we’ve got to do it! And more than that, we WANT to drive to a restaurant to tell our friend how much we adore them. We WANT to take that risk.
In class on Wednesday with Gina, we were moving in and out of some tough poses. Tough not in the sense that they’re “difficult” but tough in that we’re having to balance and strengthen and stretch all at once. We took calculated risks - moving from standing splits to plank, or moving from crescent to warrior III. My body calculated the risk of me falling on my face, breaking a bone, hurting a muscle, and adapted to minimize that risk.
So I am working on keeping my mind as sharp as my body has become so it can adapt in situations and lower my risk.
Below is a video of me in Miami visiting Jessi. She took me trapezing - talk about calculated risks!! This was the capstone swing!
Topics: Uncategorized |
February 21st, 2010 at 10:22 pm
I know you have many nets and many birds all around you. I’ve been telling some Nashvillians about your classes, so I hope a few people can make it! I think that you’ll need more than one class at 3rd and Church, especially once word spreads from your current customers.
Ready, Hup!
February 27th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Amazing, beautiful. Your people will come, more classes will come. You are going to rock this. What a great explanation and plan for calculated risks. You have many birds around you Corey.