What If is a Useless Question

I get asked this question numerous times daily.

"But What If that homeless person sleeping on the bus wakes up and gets violent?"

"What if the person who took a photo of my license plate looks me up and comes to find me?"

"What if the glue doesn't keep the thingy attached to the door?"

And the list goes on. And on and on ad Infinitum. I've learnt to ignore these questions or to fluff them off with a stern "I don't deal with what if's, I deal with what IS." Finishing with "There are enough what IS to worry and deal with."

There was a time though when I spent wasted energy worrying and planning for the what-if. What if I don't get the job or promotion? What if the house catches on fire? What if I needed to do CPR on someone? What if I run out of money in my old age? And my list went on and on.

It was a boss of mine who taught me to quit thinking like this. She told me in doing this, I for one was drawing these negative occurrences to me since I was thinking about them. I do believe in this, so that was some motivation to stop immediately. Secondly, though, she stated that it was a waste of time, which was better spent on other things then planning for something that might or might not happen. I learned my time was much more readily used to good purposes by not playing the what-if game. And more importantly, I learned I would and could navigate well when things arose, even without all the planning and worrying that could have gone into planning for these circumstances. I learned I could rely on myself.

So, if you consider the possibilities in what-if questions, maybe your time would be better spent learning to trust yourself and your skills and to build on those things, instead of participating in a negative mindset cycle.

Give it a try. Don't entertain what if. Only What is.