In any given moment I have two options: to step forward into growth, or to step back into safety – Abraham Maslow
Source: Observing life differently….
Being mindful assumes an awareness that growth comes with potential risk. We live in a world that is often described in technical ways, and not as one filled with other humans, animals, plants, and objects that we have relationships with When we construct a technical world, we strip the world and us of potential relationships which allow us to grow. Part of mindfulness is to be aware playing it safe includes risk. What did I miss? Who did I miss? Even in playing it safe, there are no guarantees. There are inherent risks.
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About ivonprefontaine
In keeping with bell hooks and Noam Chomsky, I consider myself a public and dissident intellectual. Part of my work is to move beyond (transcend) institutional dogmas that bind me to defend freedom, raising my voice to be heard on behalf of those who seek equity and justice in all their forms.
I completed my PhD in Philosophy of Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA. My dissertation and research was how teachers experience becoming teachers and their role as leaders.
I focus on leading, communicating, and innovating in organizations. This includes mindfuful servant-leadership, World Cafe events, Appreciative Inquiry, and expressing one's self through creativity. I offer retreats, workshops, and presentations that can be tailored to your organzations specific needs.
I published peer reviewed articles about schools as learning organizations, currere as an ethical pursuit, and hope as an essential element of adult eductaion. I published three poems and am currently preparing my poetry to publish as an anthology of poetry.
I present on mindful leadership, servant leadership, schools as learning organizations, how teachers experience becoming teachers, assessement, and critical thinking. I facilitate mindfulness, hospitality retreats. and World Cafe Events using Appreciative Inquiry.
I am writing and researching about various forms of leadership, how teachers inform and form their identity as a particular teacher, schools as learning organizations, hope and its anticipatory relationship with the future, and hope as an essential element in learning.
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 
I can’t imagine Maslow playing it safe.
Leslie
He was interesting. Some of his research was done among native peoples in the Dakotas and Alberta. He moved from being a positivist to being involved in research that did not look for cause and effect results, but explored how humans became fully human. There was a substantial ethical quality in his work.
Hence the Hierarchy of Needs ?
Leslie
He drew some of his material for that, including self-actualization, from those observations. I took a doctoral course called the Tao of Leadershp and we used a book by him on management, but his defintion was a lot like leadership. I enjoyed the read.
There are always risks involved if we want to be creative. The strange thing is the older I get the more risks I take at attempting new things.
We have less time left and want to feel alive in that time. When we try to create, it may not turn out the way we want, so it is important to turn the page.
Nice written..
Thank you.
Control is an illusion, but we exert much effort trying to protect ourselves. We move to the suburbs, install a security system, move into a gated community.
Actually, life is a risk and we all whither and die. The Japanese asleep in their homes felt extremely safe before the tsunami wiped them off the face of the earth.
Life is a risk whether we decide to do nothing or change drastically. Our erroneous judgments bring false security.
The beauty of life is that it is filled with risk. We do not know what comes next.
Even the wealthiest man does not know what lies around the next bend on the river of life
Maslow – Marty, above introduced me to him. I get great comfort in his teachings and Marty’s.. Maslow’s Hierachy of 5 Needs – how many of us can say all are fulfilled? l live in the moment. Sad how fear cripples and sets obstacles in front of us. Great walls of protection. Move forward to the unknown or stay safe – I say move forward. Life is too short to play it safe.
Very well said Jennifer. I enjoy Marty’s keen insights and wisdom. Maslow argued movement within the hierarchy is fluid. Whether it is fear or other emotions that cloud our judgement and do not allow us to be present, we can regress. In reference to education, Gadamer suggested we follow to many rules and do not take enough risks.