"People said, 'Gee you took a lot of risk,' But the bigger risk would have been staying at a job that wasn't fulfilling and wasting my life. Quitting to do something that I really loved wasn't a risk."
-Jim Koch, Founder, Samuel Adams Brewery

The people we met along our journey didn't see the notion of risk the same way that we had before we hit the road. To us, risk meant jeopardizing something that we'd gained or were trying to gain-our "security blanket." But what if the object of our pursuit was created from what we'd been programmed to want out of our lives? In that case, the idea of risk can hold us back from refocusing our paths onto something more meaningful. Something we're truly passionate about.

Jim Koch, the founder of Samuel Adams Brewery left a high paying job as a consultant to start his own beer company. Jim used to be an Outward Bound instructor, and gained a new perspective on the notion of risk from that experience. "Something that climber's talk about is the difference between perceived risk and actual risk. A lot of times we're driven and limited by perceived risk. But perceived risk is very unrelated to the actual risk. Those kids in my groups that would repel down the cliff backward were scared.

Especially in the first couple of steps when they had to lean all the way back. There's nothing underneath you but thin air, a couple of hundred feet down and sharp rocks at the bottom. That is very high perceived risk, but the actual risk is negligible. That rope would probably hold a car."

When we were in Seattle, we sat down with Jonathan Poneman, the cofounder of Sub Pop Records (Nirvana's original record label) who had his own take on risk. "If everything in your life is characterized as 'risk versus safety,' the human instinct is to choose safety. But what if you use a whole different standard for reevaluating your life, such as 'necessary versus unnecessary.' Things like happiness, passion, and love are all necessary." From that perspective, the real risk would be not having happiness in our lives. And the idea of refocusing our lives in order to feel more fulfillment becomes less of a risk and more of a necessity.

When people told us, "It was something I had to do," what they were really saying was that the traditional risk associated with taking action in that direction was nothing compared to the internal pull they felt to bring passion and meaning into their lives. That was the "necessary" part of the equation.

This is not to say that if you take risks and try to build a meaningful life, you won't have financial instability. Most likely, you'll be scraping by in the beginning. Before Jonathan started Sub Pop, he was a janitor at the Seattle Westin Hotel and a copy manager at Kinko's. He did anything to pay the bills so he could keep working in the Seattle music scene. During that part of his life, he traded a security blanket for happiness, passion, and love. By not focusing on the perceived risk associated with that lifestyle, he ended up defining a whole new road for himself based on what mattered to him.

Our decision to hit the road in the first place definitely felt like a risk. But looking back on it with some perspective, the greater risk would have been to stay on the freeway, continuing to live lives without passion or meaning. We were too young to start settling, but it wasn't until after the trip that we realized that.

The Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Several concerts on the Dixie Chicks' "Accidents & Accusations" tour have been canceled after slow ticket sales, but the group says it has replaced them with other dates.

Kansas City, Houston, St. Louis, Memphis and Knoxville are among 14 cities no longer on the original schedule released in May, according to a revised itinerary posted Thursday on the Dixie Chick's Web site.

Other shows, including Nashville, Los Angeles, Denver and Phoenix, have been pushed back to later dates.

The North American leg of the tour kicked off July 21 in Detroit. Billboard magazine and other trade publications have reported lackluster sales in some markets, particularly in the South and Midwest.

Group spokeswoman Kathy Allmand said Monday that the total number of North American dates remains the same, with several Canadian cities added in place of the U.S. shows.

The trio released a statement last week attributing the changes to attempts to "accommodate demand" and said more dates might be added next year.

The group also said the adjustments will allow them to promote the documentary "Dixie Chicks: Shut up and Sing," for the Toronto International Film Festival in September.

"We hope that our fans who were looking forward to a stop that is no longer on the tour will be able to join us at a nearby arena this fall, and we are sorry for any confusion or inconvenience these changes have caused," the Dixie Chicks said.

Many country fans criticized the band after lead singer Natalie Maines told a London audience in 2003 on the eve of war in Iraq that the trio was "ashamed" President Bush was from their home state of Texas.

County radio stations dropped them from their playlists and have been slow to welcome them back, despite strong sales of their latest album, "Taking the Long Way."