What if??

Very often we face this question under different context.

What if I invest in stock? What if project delivery does not go successful? What if my wife is not in a good mood? What if my daughter does not pass this year? What if I do not get salary raise? What if interview does not go good? on…. and on…. and on.

I wondered what is the best approach to deal with these what if’s and if there is a common approach to deal with so many fears or unknowns in the life.

Then I started questioning do one really need to worry about these what ifs. Can we anticipate things in advance? Is it really possible to perceive what is coming in future and work accordingly.

Answer I got from within for most of the questions is that we really do not know and can not anticipate future (unless one really has good connections with God). Then what do we do? Should we not plan at all? Again answer coming from within is balance.

I guess BALANCE is the keyword here. Again question comes in how do I know if I am striking the right balance?

Well there is no mathematical formula here and no one can tell upfront if the decision that is being made is right or wrong (in most of the complex situation).

I feel everyone makes a right decision given the context, information available, and a perception about the decision that is being made. 

To give an example an individual killing another individual on war front considered to be ok. Similarly judge sentencing someone to death considered (most of the time) ok. While same act performed in other conditions is considered as murder. 

Coming back to the point of how would one deal with different "What ifs" faced.

First of all I feel that every act/decision is pure and there is nothing right or wrong associated with it. We are humans and should accept that everyone of us can make decisions which may not be perceived correct with certain people.

Our conscious will most of the time tell us what should be done and what should not be, and in my little experience I have been satisfied with the whatever I have done as per conscious.

"What ifs" are important and would provide you a direction to move on, however we should be careful in not getting too much into "what ifs" and act faster. 

There is no rule to say we should deliberate “x” amount of time or answer “y” amount of “what if” questions before making a decision.

The moment you start getting a feel from within that it is getting too much deliberation or too much of question answer,  probably is the right time to make a decision and move on.

I would also like to highlight that when we re-evaluate decisions based on retrospective view, that particular point in time may not be the best time to evaluate the decision.

Let me take an example to explain, if you tell your child (one who does not like studying) to study and if that child starts evaluating the decision of education almost immediately after that class or grade, s/he may not realize the importance of education at point in time, but later in life s/he would realize the importance of education. 

Similarly if one starts evaluating a decision of leaving the job and starting on their own venture then  immediately after venture is unsuccessful (considering the worst case) probably is not the right time. Because the learning that one would carry from venture establishment would last life long would probably benefit much more that just continuing in the job. 

So bottom line is that be confident about yourself and trust your inner instinct. For me it has been 100% but for the sake of keeping buffer i would say 98% it would prove to be the the chosen (I intentionally avoided using “right” or “correct” as word and used “chosen” instead) way.

Comments are welcome.