What If...

A practice you probably aren't doing might want to if you feel stuck or frustrated

Often gates are designed to keep people out. Gated neighborhoods, gated homes, gated VIP entrances.

These gates are as much about advertising you can’t come in as they are about protecting the occupants from the unwashed masses lurking outside. Like us.

Often those who live behind gates want it that way. What’s on the other side of that gate is a hidden world, which we are not invited to experience.

But what if there are other kinds of gates? Gates meant for you to open.

Gates can often be an invitation.

Take this gate. Long unused, forgotten and overlooked by most. Some who frequently walk by this gate have never even seen it or perhaps thought about it. Yet it is there. Like a silent invitation to explore what lies beyond.

Sometimes gates are like that. Unnoticed by most. But what is a gate, either figuratively or metaphorically?

A gate is two things.

A passage way through to somewhere new.

An invitation. A gate isn’t a fence. It’s designed to be passed through.

One day, I found myself in rural Vermont on a hiking trail I frequent and on that day I stopped at this gate. I even took a picture. For some reason, that day this gate drew my attention in a new way.

A fellow hiker was walking down the mountain in the other direction. We were both enjoying the narrow window of time between late summer and the coming crisp Autumn season. We nodded hello to one another and I summoned the courage to ask him a question.

“Do you know why this gate is here? Do you know what’s over that ridge?”

He stopped. A fit, older gentleman in very proper but well used hiking gear. He stopped next to me, taking his hat off to wipe his balding head.

“Well, I think it was for cattle at one point. Get them to that high meadow over there. Long time ago, that”. He said, squinting into the distance where the meadow fell over the mountain’s horizon.

I was shocked to learn a while back that this part of central Vermont had long ago been completely clear cut for farming and livestock. The tops of many of the rolling green mountains covered in lush grass and wildflowers instead of the deep forests of today. The latticework of ancient stacked stone fences winding through second generation hardwoods testament to that fact.

“You been over the ridge there? Through the gate, I mean?” I asked him.

“No”, he said, shaking his head. “I know what’s over there though. Woodstock. Never been through the gate. Somebody has. Meadow’s tended to.” Vermonters are economical with their words.

We parted ways. Yet, I lingered at the gate.

I asked myself, “What if I go through this gate? What will I see? “

Then I told myself, “Well, I am going to go through it and experience something new.”

Ok, let’s pause in the story here.

I’ve put the words “What if” alongside “I am” on purpose.

The ‘What if’ allows me to open the gate. ‘I am’ invites me to step through that gate, to the other side.

Consciously ask yourself 'what if’ more often.

“What if I go a new way home? What new thing will I experience? What portion of the repeating operating system that keeps me trapped where I am might I disrupt by doing this?”

What if I smile to people more today? What might that bring?”

“What if I log off of social for the next month? What can I do with that found time?”

“What if I am open to encountering a new opportunity or synchronicity today?”

That is the first half of the magic are the two words: ‘What if.’

The second half of the magic that can change your life are the two words: ‘I am’.

This powerful combination of words evokes and awakens energy that can lead you to new places and new opportunities filled with growth and purpose.

Note that I say ‘can’. To change ‘can’ to ‘will’ requires another step. Can is the opportunity which remains unfulfilled .

I can walk through the gate but I don’t. Stay on the path. I will open the gate and walk over the ridge line to explore something new. See the difference?

Ask yourself, “what if” more often.

“What if I begin to live more authentically?”

“What if I speak with greater kindness today?”

“What if I do this but also speak more truths and accept only truths here on?”

Write down your ‘What if’s’. Where do you want to manifest change? Write these down.

Open the gate.

Then go back to what you’ve written. Your ‘what if’s’. You’ve opened the gate with these questions. And they have tremendous power but that power can’t yet go to work. It needs something else from you.

Next to your ‘what if’s’, write down your ‘I am's’. These two simple words allow you to pass through the gate. You are now on a new journey but there is one more step required.

Once you open and pass through the gate, you must keep going. Stepping through isn’t enough. You MUST take action.

You must change some of your behaviors. Disrupt the operating system of sameness that is running in the background of your life. Short circuit the system and do something new.

When you do this with consistency, authenticity and purpose and you will discover more of the right gates that are open to you on your journey.

You will start to choose new, less traveled paths which are meant for you, rather than simply travel the well worn ones you happen to find yourself on.

Standing there on that trail in central Vermont looking at that gate, I told myself, “I am going to walk through and experience what’s on the other side of that ridge.”

Then suddenly I thought, “what if it is private property? What if someone is over that hill and tells me I need to get out of the meadow, it isn’t open to the public.”

“No”, I thought. “Stick to the trail. Don’t be silly. What’s the purpose of going over there?” “It will take too long. It is a waste of time. You’ll be late.” This was my ego telling me to stick with the current operating system. Keep to what was familiar. Ignore the gate that was calling to me. “Late for what?” I asked myself.

There was no sign informing me of private property or prosecution if I entered.

“What if I go through? What’s the worst thing that can happen?” Nothing. I told myself. “I am going to go through this gate and head over the ridge to see what there is to see.”

And I did. I was rewarded the rich aroma of wild flowers blooming in the meadow and with a spectacular view that emerged as I crested the hill. One I’d never seen before. A slightly different perspective of a place I was familiar with. Just not from this vantage point. The familiar was now brand new.

See what I am getting at? We trap ourselves on certain paths and allow ourselves to ignore the gates we pass by daily.

These four simple words: “What if and I am” gifted me with a brand new experience that day that I would never have otherwise had.

You want to experience growth and change?

Start your day with intention. Journal your ‘what if’s’ and your ‘I am’s’. Then look for the gates you’ve passed by and previously ignored.

When you find one, step through and take a walk. You will not regret what you encounter.

Come back and let me know what happens when you go through and see what is on the other side of that ridge. I guarantee you will be glad you opened the gate and stepped through. I promise to do the same.