What If?

We are constantly taught to be prepared, whether it be saving money, bringing spare clothes, making sure we have a fully charged cell phone battery, and so on. Being prepared is great and necessary, but sometimes preparedness can cross the line into control and that is when it becomes a slippery slope.

We can prepare all we want, but there are some things we can just never prepare for. Life throws us unexpected curve balls and even the most prepared person is going to deal with something that they aren't ready to handle.

I think as humans, it is our natural tendency to prepare for the worst. I get it. This world is a crazy place filled with a lot of pain, but no one is immune to it. We put our guard up so much that it doesn't let live or we try to be ready for everything to the point that we are driving ourselves crazy wondering if we are doing a good enough job or if we will be able to do a good enough job when push comes to shove.

Think about it. We are so afraid of the dangerous and violent people in this world that we let them stop us from doing the things we love because we spend our days hiding away from any possible threat. We are so afraid of losing someone we care about that we dwell completely on what it would feel like if we lost them and how not to lose them, and don't enjoy them enough while they are here. We are so afraid of being hurt by people, that we build up walls that block everyone out so they can't break out heart or hurt our feelings and we isolate ourselves in the process.

Often times, we try to prepare ourselves so much to avoid pain of any sort, that we stop ourselves from growing at all. Who wants to take risks to strive towards growth, greatness, and change when we can stay in our comfort zone and not get hurt? It's easier to stick with what we know than branch out and possibly fail. It IS easier to do that, but is it worth it? When we look back on our lives, do we want to say we were always comfortable and never grew or do we want to say we took risks, let go of the need to control, and lived, and learned?

All in all, we are all going to endure some kind of hardship at some point in our lives; it's inevitable, but it's about living without the fear of "what if?". It's about taking life one day, one moment at a time, and embracing it for what it is. It's about turning away from thinking "what if something goes wrong?" and starting to think "what if something goes right?".