How many times do we ask ourselves “why not?” before taking a chance and moving into action?

I recently met a senior individual (thanks to “why not” approach, although I was unaware by then) who made “why not?” a pragmatic philosophy, aimed at taking small risks instead of letting our minds dwell on reasons not to take action.

I thought this could be related to the Garbage Can concept too: why not attempt to find connections between problems and solutions?

Easy answer: fear of failure or fear of social reprimand due to failure. Actually, it can be even worse. Our own brains are so wired to cast judgments that we don’t even try, fearing self-judgment as failures.

Too complex?

Not really, this happens every day.

You may be well-read, so I shall not have to suggest “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Kahneman. But if you need it, I can oversimplify: our System 1 (instinct) prevents us from assessing all our real options, so we avoid exploring “why not?” opportunities via rationality, aka System 2.

I believe that bolder people, the more creative ones, the ones who open new paths, are the ones who somehow silence instinct and move into rational exploration.

Or they could just be naïve and try.

Either way, asking ourselves “why not?” is a safe move to explore the best and find solutions to problems.

I tried myself to start a blog under this very philosophy: why not try? At worst, I will learn something about the internet, about writing, or (at least) about myself.

Some examples of daily “why not?” routines I tried myself:

Anything around our reality is a construct; it is how we are able to see it. Therefore, “why not” helps us reconstruct a piece of reality and turn it into opportunities.

So, why not give a second chance to any of our skills lying dormant somewhere in our CV or ambitions?

Why not seeds action.