The first characteristic of risk is that the outcome of the activity is uncertain.] When the person begins the activity, he is not sure whether or not he will be successful. In her article "Taking the Bungee Plunge," Gina Bellafonte (1992, p. 80) writes about this uncertainty: "We build sustainable confidence not by taking life-threatening risks, but by gradually working at things we never thought we could achieve." In other words, a risky activity does not have to be dangerous, but it must involve trying to accomplish something we are not sure we are capable of doing. [[The key here is that we try and succeed in doing something that is not easy for us to do. This also points to a second characteristic of risk; a risky activity must be challenging.