The year of ‘what if’?

“What if the sky was pink?”

“What if there was no sea?”

“What if ducks meowed?”

A group of women, on the third day of the new year, we were thinking of the stupidest ‘what ifs’ children have the wacky imagination to come up with.

Seamlessly we moved on to how we lose that wacky sense of wonder and possibility as we grow up.

“Isn’t it odd that children’s what ifs are totally off the wall and exciting but as adults our what ifs only focus on the worst outcome?” someone asked.

“What if I lose my job?”

“What if I can’t lose weight?”

“What if I never meet a significant other?”

“What if I can’t have a family?

So went our list of what ifs that admittedly each one of us would at some point have considered – all those worries we conjure and build up to scary monstrosities. Admit it, so have you. When we think of what might happen in the near or far future, we almost always err on the side of the worst possible outcome.

Imagine if the list went:

“What if I get a better job?”

“What if I lose the weight?”

“What if I meet the perfect person?”

“What if I can have a family?

Imagine if we focused on the best possible scenario, lifting our sights, hopes and vibrations higher so the universe was completely attuned to the power of our positive thinking and did its absolute best to deliver our what ifs right on our door step?

The problem, often with us women, hardly ever men, is that we overlook our worth. Much like the friend who wished she were younger and could train to be an antiques expert so she could get to make a living in a job she truly loved – only for her husband to remind her she was not old and she could start right now to make new dreams come true, much like the shabby bric-a brac kept in an attic somewhere or cleared out for peanuts at a garage sale, which ends up a priceless antique worth thousands, as women we price ourselves down because often our tendency is to focus on our shortcomings or our negative what ifs instead of our talents and our positive what ifs.

There is nothing like a crisp new year, waiting like the clean white first page of a new notebook waiting to be filled with new stories, to give us the confidence we need to forge ahead with all the dreams, wishes and aspirations we have held back on for too long for fear that we are not capable, we are not talented, we are not enough. The truth is we are more than enough.

If only we could find the child within whose wacky what ifs create endless possibilities and opportunities, we too can start exploring the positive what ifs full of wonder and excitement as opposed to the scary ones we have morphed ourselves into for fear of failure.

As I kick off the new year, I pause and ask:

“What if I lose that final stone?”

“What if I get to finally make that road trip happen?”

“What if I get to make that one dream I have not dared dream come true?”

“What if I am more than enough?”

“What if I am young enough to dream new dreams and turn them into reality?”

“What if the world is still my oyster full of magic and possibility?”

Or in another friend’s words, “What if the what if we have buried deep inside was actually possible but we’d forgot to have faith in ourselves?”

I am making this year the year of faith and the year of believing in the what ifs – of the positive kind.