So Positively Minty is back in action after almost a month "Down Under", despite close encounters with snakes, spiders, goanas and the Australian sun - (most dangerous thing in the world to a ginger family). Made me think about a lot of the work I do on risk - one animal handler said "you will have heard that everything in Australia will try and kill you, but if you leave them alone , most wild leave you alone".
My daughter nearly stood on a viper in the dark, causing it to get a bit excited, we picked up a few leeches in the rainforest, and a goanna tried to climb a barbecue while people were cooking on it, but that was about it....
Just before we left on the trip In Control Scotland had a day looking at risk and opportunity. I co-wrote a paper on risk with Louise Close, which is available as a resource.. I hope people will use it to help make better judgements about what is really risky, living life or trying to avoid things that might be risky. We also had a Stay Up Late Scotland event straight after it.
One of the things that came out of that day was that we sometimes can be well intentioned, but we don't always see things through to a positive outcome. the measure of our input in enabling people has to be - did it help them get to where they wanted to be?, not "I did my bit, that's all I can do".
Here is to seeing things through til the end, and not accepting excuses for why things can't change.