I still remember the first time I heard “what if” in a negative way. I actually said it to myself right before my friend, Rebekah and I rode my Little Tikes green tractor and trailer down the steep hill in my back yard. As we were contemplating what we were about to do, I kept thinking “what if we wreck, what if we go straight into the trees, and what if this hurts.”
We ultimately decided to just go for it, and the end result was awesome! We hit speeds beyond what that little tractor was made for and quickly ran up the hill to do it again.
I think many times in life, we limit what we will attempt because we allow ourselves and people around us to scare us into worrying about “what if”. What if you don’t make any money, what if it doesn’t work, what if you end up getting hurt. The excitement that an idea once brought is quickly replaced by fear and worry over something that you’re not even sure is going to actually happen.
Decisions should be thought out, ideas prayed over and risk assessed, but at some point I think we need to focus on the “what if this actually works” part.
A few weeks ago I made a video, posted it on Facebook and sat back to see if there was going to be any response. I told my wife that it was either going to go viral or flop….it didn’t flop. The end result was even bigger than the “what if this actually works” that I had imagined.
We ended up raising almost $25,000 for our orphanage in India and I made a ton of awesome new friends in the process. I was completely blown away at what the video accomplished, and I am so thankful that I followed through with the idea God put on my heart.
As you go through your day today, allow yourself to think “what if” in a positive way. Think big, dream a little and picture what could happen…and then do something to get you closer to making it a reality.
Start a business, give someone a chance or just look for ways to serve in bigger ways than you have ever imagined. You will fail; you will get hurt. But when that one “what if” comes true, it will be totally worth the bumps and bruises you earned along the way.
It always was on the little green tractor.
Andrew Smith 