Stop asking “What if…?” and start asking “What’s next?”

Recently I came face to face with a real life example of Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”

Facing the repercussions of a rash decision or poor choices made years ago can spiral us into an unproductive (and unhealthy) cycle of “What if’s?”

We all have regrets in our past that have caused us to wistfully wonder “What if I would’ve made a different choice, what would my life look like today?”

What if I would have taken that job-

finished college-

left that relationship etc.

The problem with asking those questions is bombarding yourself with a regret that you can’t do anything about.

Instead you should try focusing on the future by asking, “What’s next?”

What next steps can you take to propel you towards where you’ve always imagined you would be?

You may not be where you want to be right now, and you may not have achieved all that you hoped you would’ve accomplished. But chances are your life is far from over.

Have you ever really given serious thought to what you want your future to look like? I’m not talking about back when you were in college, but recently?

It doesn’t matter if you are 20, 40 or 60- dreams are dreams and they shouldn’t be discounted just because you aren’t 16!

The greatest thing about dreams and goals is that they are always “tweakable”.

Many, many years ago I had a dream of what I thought my life would look like.

Today, I’m so thankful that over the years various choices have caused me to take paths that I never thought I would embark on.

Those paths have led me into the most amazing opportunities (that I never even knew existed before) simply because I was able to tweak my dream.

What I thought I wanted life to look like wasn’t even close to where I am now, and where I am now is so much better due to a little tweaking of my original dream.

What would a little “tweaking” of your dream look like to you?

For example maybe you wanted to play professional sports. What did you find so appealing about pursuing that occupation? Was it the camaraderie of being on team? Was it the actual sport and the enjoyment and growth you received from competition?

Perhaps you made a choice which took sports out of the equation for a while.

Tweaking that dream may look like coaching your child’s little league, soccer or football team, or joining a recreational city league.

I have taken more than a few detours with my passion of dancing over the years. One of my favorites was being able to choreograph and direct a performance of the Nutcracker at an elementary school one winter. (Almost every dancer dreams of being part of the Nutcracker at some point in their life.)

Mistakes are an evitable part of life. After all, no one is perfect. But drowning in regrets is a choice.

You have a choice to abandon your dream, tweak it, or determine to find a new one.

So, now the choice is up to you, are you going to spend the rest of your life looking back and dwelling on the “What if’s?”

Or, will you take the more empowering initiative of looking far beyond the “what might have been” into the more productive -“what’s next” for you?

Who knows , What’s next could possibly be greater than you could’ve ever dreamed or imagined.