The Question: What If?

The biggest question you will ever ask yourself in life is the question, What If? It is also one of the saddest questions you will pose to yourself over your life span.

Importance of Inquiry

One of the keys to unlocking what you want in life is asking questions. Asking questions opens worlds, and it will take you in directions you never fathomed.

“The key to wisdom is this – constant and frequent questioning, for by doubting we are led to question, by questioning we arrive at the truth.” – Peter Abelard

There is a saying that no question is a bad question. There is much truth to that.

However, some questions can become stumbling blocks while others are instruments for propulsion.

What If is one of those questions that fit in both categories.

What If Questions

Face it in life; obstacles come. And we all reach a point where we must decide to push through or relent.

Posing the what-if question can prove very beneficial when coming up against obstacles.

The easiest option is always to concede after looking at the pain of now.

However, the wise person takes an honest assessment, submits to a cost/benefit analysis, or more plainly poses the question, What/if?

A few What If Questions that Drive Decisions

There are more than a few what-if questions that drive decisions.

• What if I quit? Then how will I benefit? How will it make me feel in the present? How will it make me feel down the road?
• What if I don’t quit? What will I have to commit to in the present? How will it make me feel? How will things turn out down the road?

Asking what if helps to look at things realistically, allowing one to paint a more accurate picture of the short-term/long-term benefits vs. the short/long-term costs.

And if applied and considered honestly, it could save an individual a lot of heartaches.

This brings us to the point where What/If becomes the saddest question.

What If The Saddest Question

What/If becomes the saddest question when life renders one unable to progress as they once could or when an opportunity has passed and gone. It is then that what/if becomes a question of wishful thinking.

At this point, what/if becomes a question riddled with guilt?

What/If becomes purely reflective.

For Example:

• What if I had taken an opportunity?
• What if I had listened?
• What if I hadn’t quit?
• What if I could change things?

The past is already written. You can only act from the point of now. So here, this question is fruitless.

A Word to You

So remember, there will come a time when you are filling the pages left in the reflective journal of the story of your life. At that point, reflection pervades most of one’s waking hours.

So I implore you while the sprigs of life are green to ask What/If?