The Theory of What “IF”

What "IF"

"I wonder what would happen if..."

Cause and effect is a very interesting concept. It’s at work all the time in our lives, work, businesses daily affairs, etc. It impacts us whether we are directly involved in the situations or circumstances or not. 

But, what if we take a look at our own little worlds, and more specifically our goals and plans? How does the principle of cause and effect directly impact those things? 

Well, it does, both negatively and positively.

For instance, let’s say you plan to take a trip, but every other thought you have while putting your plans in place is “but WHAT IF it rains?” “but WHAT IF we don’t like the accommodations?” “but WHAT IF the play gets cancelled?” “WHAT IF something happens and we don’t get to go after all?” Clearly, you can see where this is taking you, and it’s not on the wonderful trip to your vacay spot. 

Your “WHAT IF” attitude will cause you to thwart your plans altogether, or have a miserable time. It’s unfortunate, but many folks are guilty of doing this all the time, in various daily life situations and interactions. The "effect" is self-sabotage, and it’s the "cause"of negative thinking.

However, WHAT IF you planned a wonderful trip and it rained the whole time? WHAT IF you are not happy with the accommodations? WHAT IF the play that you were so excited to see gets cancelled? And, WHAT IF something did happen and you had to cancel your plans entirely? WHAT IF you took an approach that took you down a different road than the negative thinking journey?

If you have been around long enough, you already know that life happens. We have to decisively and intentionally choose how we are going to handle everything. I don’t know that complaining about rain ever made it stop raining, but I do know that consciously and creatively coming up with alternative plans can save the day. Disappointment in hotel accommodations means you have to move to a different place. Inconvenient? Yes. Doable? Also, yes. 

You do whatever is the most positive thing to do when things of a negative nature happen, whatever it is. It’s a choice to stay positive, but we can even in the most difficult circumstances. Often we forget we have so many other choices and directions available to us when we linger in the negative thinking valley. We have to regroup and choose them.

Life is full of challenges, a myriad of happenings that we must apply our intentional change of thinking to, in order to positively manage our outcomes for ourselves, and everyone concerning us. Certainly, we can’t magically change everything to be exactly perfect, but WHAT IF we work on causing ourselves to see the light at the end of every tunnel? Just imagine what the effect of that might be! ~ S.R.F.

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