The Different Possibilities of Me
What if? Doesn’t that little question put a little smile or smirk on your face? To just stop and think for a while…what if this or what if that? In the context of you and your life, what if can pose some big questions. It can open up access to an endless sea of possibilities and it can bring real change in your life and the lives of others. Many great inventions and businesses started with someone asking that little question, and then looking for the answers.
Each little question or challenge we face and overcome can bring with it an opportunity to take life in a new direction; to walk a path we might not yet have walked or to explore unchartered territory in our own life story and grow as a person. Everyone’s life is filled with so many unanswered questions and different possibilities, if we only learn to look for them and see them for what they are, opportunities for self-growth and become that person we want to be in our future years.
These new directions we choose to travel or maybe are forced to travel by life, are not always filled with rainbows and sunshine along the journey, at least from your first view of the path you believe you will be traveling. There are many choices to make and pathways to take. Each can take us in a direction that will add to our character and make us into a somewhat different person than we were a few months ago. These are the different possibilities and choices that make us into the person we are today. What possibilities do your life choices hold for you? Have you looked ahead into your future and asked who will you become, five or ten years from now? Have you asked the question what if, enough in your own life?
This morning as I was continuing my research on life planning, I came across some different methods to create a user profile referred to as a “persona” or “archetype”, used by software programmers. These are simply aspects of a make-believe character that are presented to or perceived by others in the form of a model, prototype or pattern of behavior which is copied and then presented as a possible person. They basically create an individual’s life, give them a personality and characteristics with wants, needs and desires so they can imagine how this newly developed persona, would react to whatever software application they are creating.
It struck me that this is very similar to how I believe we should be creating a life plan. Each of us right now, today, is a unique and individual person in our own right. We do have our own exclusive persona that has been created by all the life events we have been a part of so far. Most of us probably had a somewhat different persona in our teens, 20’s or 30’s, and we will or can have a different persona in our future years as well, maybe even several more before our time is up. If we take time to add new and different events to our lives, we realistically can change who we will be in our future years. Taking time to create and consider the different possibilities of who you can become or want to become in your future is at the heart of life planning. Asking the question “what if” and thinking about all the possibilities that exist for you today and then acting on them to make them happen is what life planning really is all about.
Many of us start the life planning process towards the end of our high school years when we begin thinking about career paths. I myself started in this way. I went to the guidance counselor and had several discussions about what it would be like to have this type of career or to work in that field. What it took to gain the knowledge of that type of career and what the costs were to gain it, both in terms of time and dollars. I do remember thinking about the question, what if. I did not fully realize it at that time, but that was my first exposure to life planning. In all truth, life planning did not really exist at that time, at least not in the way it is thought about now.
Today, I can look back and see the pathways I traveled and understand the crossroads I came to and even see the different choices of roads I could have gone down. I can see the roads I traveled and what happened to me while traveling on each road. I can also see the possibilities that might have become reality if I had chosen a different path, especially at some of the more major crossroads of my own life. I am sure many of you can also see your own possibilities if different choices where made. This way of thinking might have to do with the passing of a certain amount of time. After the accumulation of many life events, it seems natural for us to look at the roads traveled and not traveled and draw some conclusions about what we did or did not do. Be careful not to be overcome with feelings of regret. What if, is a question best used for developing your future.
This is exactly what we want to focus on for a moment. Not the past, but the fact of looking at the crossroad of choices you have in your life right now today; those choices you have about your future. What crossroads are you standing at right now? Where will you be standing in the next couple of years? Where do you want to be standing? Where do you want to end up after your life journey is complete? What if this? What if that? These are the questions you should be thinking about when planning your future life. Your future is full of many possibilities. We do not want to dwell on our past choices, only use them to educate us to better understand the need to see that we do have choices and are standing almost every day at a crossroads of some sort. Which road you take depends on what you are focused on or what catches your eye when you look at the road up ahead. What is your motivation to choose a specific path? What will happen if you travel it? What happens if you don’t travel it? When we learn to look at and use our past experiences to make better choices about our future life, we will be able to see more clearly what lies ahead whether we take a specific pathway, or not. When we consider our own life intelligence or wisdom and look ahead at a possible road to travel in our future, we should be able to see a lot farther down the road and make better choices.
This way of thinking works for all types of choices big and small. Whether to work out, instead of watching TV or video game, to have one more drink of alcohol or eat that bag of potato chips or grab a second helping of food. To spend time with our children, especially when they are younger or do we use that time for our own personal gratification on entertaining ourselves in some way or maybe working more hours than we really need to? There are even simpler choices like frequent telling or showing someone how much you appreciate them and love them; even simply just listening to them. These and many other choices lay in front of us every day and the decision we make followed up by the actions we take accumulate creating our future lives and who we become in that future.
The pathways or choices you decide to take in life are what bring you to your end destination. They can be filled with every-day-monotony or they can be filled with new experiences, but they are your paths to choose. Your choices are also what makes you into the person you will become in your future. The beautiful thing is that many pathways can be traveled many times. If you passed up a pathway earlier in life and did not take it, you can decide to go back and take it now. Unfortunately, this does not work for all pathways. Some choices, once made, cannot be unmade and have some dire consequences that will become a part of you for all time. This is why it is so important for you to be asking the question “what if” and be able to see as far ahead as you can when standing at the crossroads of your life. Many questions, choices and possibilities exist for us to pick from every day, but not all of them lead you to a place of happiness and contentment.
The possibilities for you and your life are truly endless and I hope you decide to use your life intelligence and wisdom to ask good questions and make good life choices about your future.
Here are two quotes to ponder:
The first is from the Bible, 1st Corinthians 6:12, “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial.
The second is from Charles Dederich, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”
Gary J Kiecker