Following the trend of my previous post on “From how-to to why-to“, we move on to the trend of from what-if to just-be.

What if
Some of you may know that I spent years figuring when I’m going to start writing this blog. For years, I thought of the title, opened the wordpress account and waited. In the meantime, the what-ifs in my head grew bigger and more creative. What if I can’t find anything to write? What if no one likes it? What if they laugh at me? What if it’s horrible? And the oh-so-classic: what if I’m not good enough to write?

What-ifs serve a function – to allow you plan ahead so you have contingency plans. But I guess when it comes to achieving certain goals in my life or forging new ground (at least new ground to me), it handicaps. Because what-ifs can be creative, anything under the sun, even if it has very little probability of being true. We love a classic drama but it does nothing for me and my dreams when it exists only in my head.

So where does the shift happen?

Just be
In surrendering to the process that is, the fears that come up and disguise as what-ifs, that is the part of myself that wants to protect. It remains a part of me, and I am grateful to have that. Because it’s a part of me, it’s not something I can just remove or cut away.

This requires me to be present, to stay in the moment and to be strongly aware of myself, my reactions, my beliefs. I find that initially, I move in and out of this state very quickly and it takes a lot of effort. I haven’t found the point where it gets effortless, but with practice it’s getting easier to bring myself back to the present moment. The result, is that I just-be.

Who’d knew that with all the running around in what-ifs, all it took was to learn to settle in the flow and still of just-be?