Exploring the Power of 'What If' Thinking

Michel de Montaigne, a French philosopher, said five hundred years ago:?"My life has been filled with terrible misfortune, most of which never happened."

Many of us worry about work, relationships, money, and health. Some concerns are accurate and valid, but many are unnecessary. Worrying every day about "what ifs" (the "what if disease of the mind") and worse-case scenarios begin to interfere with and control your daily life.

The good news is that self-monitoring (being more aware) of your thinking can turn worry into a constructive process.?The minute a problem occurs, pause, take a few deep breaths, and ask yourself these questions:

• What is the evidence that the thought is accurate or not true?
• Is there a more positive, realistic way of looking at the situation?
• Is the thought helpful? How will worrying about it help you, and how will it hurt you?
• Is the problem something you're currently facing rather than an imaginary what-if?
• If the problem is an imaginary what-if, how likely will it happen?
• Can you do something about the problem or prepare for it, or is it out of your control?
• If you stop worrying and start thinking of solutions, will this serve you better?

A study at Cornel University shows that eighty-five percent of what we worry about never happens.? In this study, subjects were asked to write down their worries over an extended period and identify which of their imagined misfortunes did not occur.

It turns out that 85 percent of subjects worried about what never happened, and with the 15 percent that did happen, 79 percent of subjects discovered either they could handle the difficulty better than expected or the difficulty taught them an important lesson worth learning.

This means that 97 percent of what we worry over is a fearful mind punishing us with exaggerations and misperceptions.

Here is a quote by Winston Churchill that depicts this sentiment:?"When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened."

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