Possible vs. probable
Have you ever had an irrational fear? One that you KNOW is silly, but you can’t help feeling that tickle of dread or angst? On more than one occasion I’ve found myself deeply worried about an earthquake that would open up the ground and swallow me whole (anyone else watch “Superman” from the Christopher Reeve era as a kid??!).
The thing is – that’s possible, but it’s not probable.
When I find myself worrying excessively, I’ve started to ask myself: Is this POSSIBLE? And if the answer is yes, I ask myself: But is it PROBABLE?
Many things in this universe are POSSIBLE, but far fewer of them are PROBABLE.
We can’t predict the future, we can only consider what is likely to happen, and behave in ways that might (hopefully) increase the probability of our desired outcomes.
It’s when we mix those up – when we treat something that is POSSIBLE as though it is PROBABLE - that we expose ourself to unnecessary suffering.
What could you worry about less (or stop all together) if you could downgrade it in your mind from the PROBABLE category to simply (one of many) POSSIBLE realities?
The 1000 pieces to this puzzle made it feel possible, though not probable, that we could finish it before the end of the Easter weekend…boy did we surprise ourselves to finish it in just over 24 hours! #puzzlehounds