What If

Life is full of choices and decision making.  We are introduced to making decisions from such an early age.  Which toy are you going to play with?  What TV show do you want to watch? Do you want cake or ice cream? (ermmmm both thank you!) Some of these are easier than others.

It is only as we get older (sometimes wiser) we start to realise that the decisions we make leave an option that has been left behind.  

It is at this point when our days become full of times when we can ask ourselves ‘what if?’

Sometimes it can be important to change these ‘what if’ questions to something that can be more helpful to us. A little more kinder to our minds. It isn’t easy, but spending every minute of the day thinking what if you turned left instead of right is not going to achieve anything.

What if, just for today you chose the other option? It is impossible to turn back time, so teaching ourselves to think a little differently about our choices is going to be the only option.

Instead of asking yourself ‘what if?’ What would happen if you were have a different conversation with yourself about your choice? One that was to put less doubt and criticism on your choice? Imagine standing in front of a mirror and instead of asking why you turned left this morning you said something along these lines;

“You turned left, that’s amazing, look at the options you now have available, look how much closer you are to your goal, look how much further you have come, you actually made the choice.”

Rather than wondering if you should have picked the other option and contemplating what that would have meant for your day, you look at what the path you chose has given you.

Focusing on ‘what if’ all the time means you are missing out on what you have chosen, the beauty of your choices, your uniqueness, your character which is only visible through your choices.

What if, just for today you chose the other option?

There is no such thing as a wrong choice if you made it yourself, if it was made by you, by your own mind, your own personality and your own thinking.

The ‘what if’ way of thinking is always going to be there, it’s all you’ve ever known. That doesn’t mean it is wrong, it just means that is what you have been taught. Thinking of where you are now, and what you have, looking forwards and not backwards will take time and practice.

Choices are hard to make, admittedly at times they are made for us. This can make that ‘what if’ phrase scream so loud. Again, I wouldn’t say that is wrong. The energy spent on it though will exhaust you, in order to sustain that feeling of hope, motivation and momentum everyone has to keep their fire burning.

Be proud of your choices, have faith in your decisions, step forward with pride, and shine your rainbow of hope for all to see. You can’t change the decisions of the past, but you can lay the foundations for a stronger path to the future.