Achieve Your Dreams Despite “What If”

by Madeleine Blanchard in self leadership, training and deveopment for the Ken Blanchrad company.


A client who is writing a book hit a wall today and called me up.  Part of her research for the book involves getting people to fill out a comprehensive survey that requires a fair amount of thought. Her goal is to have 100 completed surveys. She is running into trouble asking people to fill out the survey.  Every time she wants to ask she finds herself swept away by a rock slide of “What If’s”.

“What if they don’t want to fill it out?”
“What if they say yes, but then forget or regret it?”
“What if I never end up writing the book?”
“What if I write the book and it is no good?”
“What if I publish the book and no one buys it?”
“What if I publish the book and reviewers say mean things about it and me?”
“What if?”
“What if?”
“What if?”
We are so creative and productive when it comes to finding ways to keep ourselves moving forward aren’t we?
So we considered a few ways to push the rocks away, and the main thing we found was to answer the “What if ?” question with a “So what?”
To achieve your goals, keep one eye on the end game, and one eye on the task at hand. When that little voice starts asking what will happen when you fail or hit obstacles talk back with “so what?” Figure that the unexpected will happen, and that you’ll deal with it when it happens.  And keep moving