What If?

It’s a question I ask often. To myself and others. What if … we did this? What if … you tried that? What if … I looked at it another way? What if … you worked together on this? What if … what if … what if?

Being curious is a way of being for me. I’d never really thought about it too much. I ask a lot of questions and what if is one of them. When I ask what if it is always asked with a positive intent. I’m seeking discovery, to consider opportunities and to explore what is possible.

I was in a meeting recently with a group of people who used what if questions in a completely different way to me and I stopped and thought a bit more about this simple question. In this meeting, I was taken aback by the barrage of a different sort of what if question. What if it doesn’t work? What if they don’t like what we say? What if you fail? What if it makes things worse for us? What if they tell us to change? What if they make us do this? What if this uncontrollable thing was to happen? What if this unlikely outcome was to eventuate?

It reminded me of the poem, What If I Fall? by Erin Hanson

There is freedom waiting for you,
On the breezes of the sky,
And you ask, “What if I fall?”
Oh, but my darling,
What if you fly?