In my mind, I am the best writer in the world, I have a billion dollar business, and I would definitely get into that relationship if circumstances were different.
Living in my mind is incredible. Anything can happen in there! I can fantasise about an idea, and create a world that feels special. I can keep on building that world forever.
I can keep coming up with an endless amount of reasons to keep that world alive. Testing them with reality has a huge price. Maybe my world will collapse? Or it might look completely different from my imagination.
Kittens and Death
Schrödinger’s cat is a famous thought experiment from quantum physics. A cat is placed inside a sealed box with a mechanism that may or may not kill it. Until the box is opened, the cat is treated as both alive and dead at the same time. Only by looking inside does one possibility become real.
The ideas in my head work in a similar way. Until I open the box, or test them with reality, anything is possible. I have the perception of freedom, because I am telling myself the only thing stopping those realities from materialising is my choice.
But at the same time, I am slowly getting paralysed by the multitude of options. I’ve spent so much time building up this world in my head. Testing it with reality would mean starting over in the physical world.
It feels dangerous. What if I fail? What if I am actually not as good of a writer? What if people will laugh at me? Suddenly I feel insecure, and take my hands off the doorknob. Let me just make sure that I am ready!
So I keep on preparing. I open up my notes, and spend one more hour on an article that I already rewritten 10 times. I have to make sure it's perfect! I keep on building a castle that has no foundation in reality yet. The cat has to stay alive!
Opening the Box
But what if I take a different approach? Instead of building a house in my mind that I have no idea if anyone would want to enter, I lay the first brick in the physical world. I slowly start opening the box.
I don't have to overwhelm myself though. I can start by peeking inside, and letting some light into the darkness. Heck, I might even close the box back. But I already started with putting things in motion.
Slowly I build up more courage. I let in more light, and I see the cat. I have no idea if it is alive or not, but the cat becomes visible. I still don't see the full spectrum of what's inside yet. The corners are still dark.
Maybe the cat was pregnant, so I find seven kittens in the corner. Or the cat went crazy, and it attacks me. Maybe the cat is Buddha. Because it spent so much time in the darkness, it awakened.
The possibilities in my head are no longer endless. But reality might contain possibilities I never thought of.
Once the cat is out of the box, I have the choice to face the situation or close back the box as soon as possible. But I can't unsee what I’ve seen.
A Practical Example
I had a blog in 2018 already, but stopped writing for 7 years. Last year, my intention was to restart this passion of mine. But I can't just publish one post, I have to have 10 ready for the launch!
How will it look if I announce these big goals, only to stop after two weeks? I have to be ready.
So I wrote and wrote. Maybe I had 5 drafts sitting in my notes. I will publish when I have more, it needs to make sense.
Fortunately I am part of an amazing accountability group with my friends from Alpiness Coloving. I committed to start publishing, and because people were watching me, I could not back out.
So I started. I posted my first article on my Instagram, and expected tens of messages and hundreds of subscribers. I am the best writer after all, everyone will love and follow my journey.
Well no. I was pacing nervously up and down my room. There was no response in the first hour. Maybe 3 people read it. Where are the people? In my mind, I was already nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
Ridiculous, hah? I know! The castle I built in my mind clashed with the reality of laying down the first brick of the same castle in physical world. It felt painful, and I wanted to run away.
I eventually stopped publishing after I had 5 articles, and started focusing on my Instagram. But the foundation I started building in June 2025 was still there.
More than a year later, I started building towards the same castle again. Let’s see how far I get this time.
Final Words
There is a quote by Myles Munroe that has stayed with me:
“The wealthiest place in the world is not the gold mines of South America or the oil fields of Iraq or Iran. The wealthiest place on the planet is just down the road. It is the cemetery. There lie buried companies that were never started, inventions that were never made, bestselling books that were never written, and masterpieces that were never painted. In the cemetery is buried the greatest treasure of untapped potential.”
I don’t want to build another imaginary castle in that cemetery.
I would rather open the box and discover that the cat is dead than spend my life protecting a cat that may never have existed. There is only one way to know: by opening the box.
What’s the first box that comes to your mind that you’ve been keeping closed for way too long? You don’t have to tear the whole thing open today. But I encourage you to take a peek inside.
And if you do, I’d love to hear what you find.
See you next week,
Robert.