Tip #53- Using ‘What if?’ to your benefit!

After a long holiday weekend at the beach, my family and I were heading home.  Our SUV was packed with suitcases, refrigerator goods in a cooler, sleepy buddies, blankies and pajamas (kids napped in the car), snacks, golf clubs, beach floaties, random things we almost forgot but grabbed haphazardly on our way out the door.

During our ride home, my husband and I were discussing how long it had been since we visited with specific friends of ours.  The husbands are good friends as well as the wife and I.  They have 3 children, and 2 are around the ages of our children.  We realized that we were going to drive by their house on our way home.  An idea crept up…maybe we can see if they are around so we can stop by?

Immediately my mind points to the million things I need to do and organize before work begins at 8am the next morning.  I mean, the four of us had been gone for 3 days, and we needed to unpack, do laundry and I had to review some work materials that night.   So of course, I think, tonight is not a good night…we have so much to do before tomorrow morning comes.  However, we had not seen these friends in a while…so when the invitation to stop by came through my phone…I said “What if?”  What if we can have a relaxing, enjoyable visit where I won’t feel rushed or stressed about everything I have to do?  What if I can do this? What will it look like?

So, I decided to do what I would never normally do….with our car packed to the top, full of dirty laundry, sand ridden toys and thawing food….we happily spent the next 3 hours at our friend’s house.  We ordered dinner and let the kids play and play.  I was so relaxed by the time we arrived home, I decided laundry could wait.  We tucked the kids in bed and I did my work before going to bed early!

My husband even said, “You would normally never do this. What gives?”  And the more I thought about it, I think it comes back to the question, “What if?”  I knew it would have been nice to enjoy a relaxing visit with our good friends, but I did not know if I could “handle it” knowing we had not even been home and my apparent ‘to do’ list for that night was so long.  But because I asked myself “What if we can do this and what would this look like?” I was able to step outside of my usual comfort zone which ended up providing me with a a relaxing, guilt free, very enjoyable visit with great friends.

Are you doing certain things because that is how you have always handled those types of situations?

What have you said “no” or “yes”  to that you could say “what if?” to?