A few weeks ago, I shared the Book of Maybe with my friend, Elizabeth. I saw her yesterday and she told me she had read the book and was feeling more hopeful about life. Elizabeth’s children were old enough now that she could start thinking about a new career. She loved cooking but she never had the confidence to pursue it. After reading the book, she thought “Well, Maybe I’ll take a few classes and see if I can do this. Maybe I can open up a small shop or catering company. I would really like that.”
Just like Elizabeth, we can apply the philosophy of Maybe to overcome our uncertainties, not only about our career path or stock portfolios, but about ourselves.
The uncertainty that we have about ourselves is called self-doubt. Too much self-doubt can start a cycle of never-ending internal questions such as: “Am I sure I can do this?”, ”What happens if I fail?”, “What if my idea is foolish?”, and “How will other people judge me?” As this dialogue continues to crowd our minds, it robs us of the courage and confidence to embrace all that is possible.
The good news is that just as our fears of the unknown are not absolutely certain, our self-doubts are not certain either. Can we be absolutely certain that we cannot achieve what we want in our lives? Are we absolutely certain that what other people think about what we do with our lives is correct? Are we absolutely certain that there is no way that we can create opportunities we desire?
As Maybe allows us to question our self-doubt, we start to realize that Maybe we can make changes in our lives to find our own true happiness. Maybe provides us strength to ask ourselves, if we could reach for the goals that we desire, what would they be? Maybe confronts every one of our impulses that we don’t have what it takes to succeed because, in fact, Maybe we do.
Maybe we can consider taking a class to learn something new. Maybe we start contemplating a new career or new business. Or Maybe our journey starts just by thinking about ways to attain a promotion in our present job and with it, a raise in salary.
What is so great about Maybe is that it doesn’t urge us to change our lives faster than we can handle or make rash decisions we could regret later. It merely guides us to gently question our circumstances. It allows us to contemplate the notion that maybe we can change our lives. It creates an opening for us to explore what is really possible.
Just Maybe.