Yes, risk taking is inherently failure-prone.  Otherwise, it would be called sure-thing-taking. 
- Tim McMahon

Prudence keeps life safe, but does not often make it happy. 
- Samuel Johnson

Feel the fear and do it anyway. It sounds convincing. But what if it all goes horribly wrong? Of course, none of us like to think of ourselves as boring or predictable. We may even think ourselves vaguely interesting. But what about bitter experience, the pain and humiliation? Surely it's best to play it safe from hereon in. After all, we're creatures of habit. A body likes routine, don't you know.

Or is this just the fear talking? When did we stop taking risks? Why did we stop? Maybe you never stopped; maybe you're Bear Grylls in disguise. ('I was showing how you can eat bear poo the other day,' says British adventurer Bear Grylls. 'It's great. It can save your life if you need to eat.') The 'age of austerity' has got us battening down the hatches. But should we fight back and react in counter-intuitive ways, start taking risks with our lives, make a few bold decisions? Or is that just stupidity? Mmmm, what to do...

• Is it important to take risks? If so why? Or is it best to play it nice and safe - to look after ourselves - despite the constant urging of modern media and advertising that there are at least '1000 Things We Must Do Before We Die', bungee jumping etc?

• Do you consider yourself a risk taker? Do you take calculated risks?

• Would you encourage your children to take risks in order to somehow embolden their lives?

• What's a relatively recent risk you yourself have taken?

• Do we naturally take less risks the older we get?

• We hear a lot about 'bleedin' health and safety': are we a risk-averse society?