Occasionally I like to play a game of “What if…?”
What if I quit being a photographer? What if I quit being an art gallery director? What if I simply quit? What I got a 9-5 as an art director for an ad agency instead? What if I married the next guy and became a stay at home mom? What if …?
The one thing that is crucial to understand when you play the “What if” game is the impulse within.
It wouldn’t matter what form of art I choose to practice. I will always have the desire to turn it into my livelihood, my career.
If I went and worked at an ad agency as a creative, within 6 months I would be trying to figure out how to start my own agency.
If I was a stay at home wife, I would try to find a way to turn all the baking and cooking into a business of some sort.
There will always be that whisper in the heart that drives you towards being the thing that you are. A creative. An entrepreneur. A problem solver.
The important thing is to understand the essence of the impulse and not get stuck on the specifics.
Focus on what / who you want to be instead of what you want to have.
Things are just things, ask Ev Bogus if he really misses his things.
Its good to play the “What if” game once in a while. It helps you imagine bigger and better. It helps you determine if the life you are living is the one you WANT to be living. It helps you get clear.
What if…You love this post and retweet it? You would rock my world! That’s a promise.
This is why I can never just pick-up ‘hobbies’. My mind inevitably goes to how I pursue whatever I do within vocational terms. Not necessarily to make cash but with the perseverance that any professional needs to make a living off of.
What if I pursued each of my passions with such force that they each birthed a new revenue stream, so that I no longer have all my eggs in one ‘career’ basket?
I think that is a great idea! Who says you can only have ONE career? Who says money can only come from one source?
If you dedicate to each of your passion with force and focus, I believe great things will come of it!
What if…again…
20 yrs ago… what if I quit my job and went to the dessert?
15 yrs ago… what if I sold everything, left everything, no more city, moved back to the mountains?
11 yrs… what if I shatter my ankle? what if I break both shoulders? what if I break my back in two places? what if I never give up…
10 yrs… what if I met a girl? what if she met my parents in Mexico and mariachis came to their home after I gave her a ring on Valentines day?
7 yrs… what if it’s a boy? what if my whole world is in his little pale blue eyes? What if I write him letters before he can read?
4 yrs… what if I work for myself? what if I fail? what if I start surfing…what if I start playing guitar?
3 yrs… what if I write?
2 yrs… what if it’s a girl? OMG…It’s a girl!
1 yr… what if the economy doesn’t recover…what if I’m burried in a tree-well avalanche? what if I survive? what if my business doesn’t survive?
3 months ago… what if my wife goes back to work? what if I spend more time with the kids? what if I take pictures and write about stuff and make new friends?
yesterday… what if I skateboard to work?
what if I never said what if?
what if?
🙂
OMG! I cannot tell you how much I love what you just wrote. It is beautiful. i adore it so and it made me laugh so hard.
Yes. Lets live a life of never saying WHAT IF.
I am. How about you?
ps…no excuse for auto spell… DESERT!
It would be great it if you went to DESSERT! A land of houses made out of pie, trees made out of cake, clouds of sorbet…That would be wicked! 🙂
Thank you for this reminder. “Focus on what / who you want to be instead of what you want to have.” I’ve tried to do this for the past 3 years and I have not been disappointed with my results. There will always be the nagging “what if” voice in my head, but I have to always counter with the question “what if I don’t?!”
I love that you counter with, “What if I don’t!” 🙂
“What if”s are alwaz there to remind u of lost times, loves, promises…instead go forward and prosper. 🙂 namaste