We like to believe that we are in charge of our lives.

And in many ways we are.

But then you look a little closer.

How many of your thoughts are actually yours?

Some came from your mother.
Some from your father.
Some from teachers.
Some from partners.
Some from society.
Some from whatever you were told was sensible, respectable, successful or normal.

We absorb these ideas and then quietly build our lives inside them.

So I have become interested in one very simple question:

What if this thought isn’t true?

Not:

“Is this thought positive?”

Not:

“How can I replace this thought with a better one?”

Just:

What if it isn’t true?

What if you aren’t too old?

What if you’re not actually bad at this?

What if you don’t need everybody to approve?

What if you don’t need to know the entire path before taking the first step?

What if the thing you’ve been calling unrealistic is simply something you haven’t tried yet?

I’m not asking you to replace every thought with an optimistic one.

I’m much more interested in curiosity.

Because once you stop treating every thought as a fact, you have some room.

Room to question.

Room to experiment.

Room to notice what happens.

Room for another possibility.

I also like this question because it puts you back in the driver’s seat.

You don’t have to believe every thought your brain produces.

You can examine it.

You can challenge it.

You can even laugh at it.

And perhaps the most interesting question isn’t:

“What should I think instead?”

It’s:

“What if this thought isn’t true?”