if.

That little word with so much meaning, so much weight – if.

We could spend our entire lives thinking about ‘if’ scenarios that probably would never even occur in real life. Why? As humans, we like to fantasize. We like to think about things that we don’t have or haven’t happened.

Think. Another big word. ‘Think’ and ‘if’ go quite well together, because in order to fall into the ‘if’ trap, you’ve got to think first. 

For example, what if I’d never started this blog? What if the world ended today? What if I… 

Stop yourself right there. There’s no point in dreaming up all these ‘if’ things. Put yourself back down in reality and focus on the ‘certain’. 

Don’t get me wrong – sometimes ‘if’s are good things. After all, how do fiction writers get an idea for a book besides thinking “What if…”. You can become a successful, famous author just by using that one word. 

But it can get unhealthy sometimes. As much as we fiction writers and readers love to travel to these worlds inside books, we’ve got to live in our own world too. Balance out your fantasies with your realities, and that ‘if’ word will become a whole lot simpler to understand. 

- CVSUTHERLAND