As I poured the guest his kettle soured beer, I heard him brag to his friend, "Bro, if I stopped drinking I'd be so f*ing buff. Three months and I'd be shredded."

I placed the beer–his third of the hour–in front of him and chuckled to myself.

Not because his statement sounded ridiculous, but because I remember spouting similar proclamations to my friends before I quit drinking.

Getting "shredded" is hard enough, but so is getting sober.

He didn't realize that his lack of a sweet tooth was because of the booze, and within weeks of abstinence he would be craving sugar like a kid again.

He hadn't yet learned that part of the reason he pushes himself so hard in the gym is to atone for his previous night of debauchery.

And there's no way I could explain to him the pain of losing friendships that were propped up for years by the ritual of getting drunk together and fantasizing about all the amazing things you could do if only you stopped drinking.

I wrote down that snippet of conversation, along with a few details about the man, in my pocket notebook and that was that.

But when I woke up the next morning I had a new question in my mind:

"What if he did it?"

What if he did quit drinking and actually got shredded? What if I saw this man and his friend sit at the bar three months from now and he was jacked, ordering a soda water with lime, telling the tale of how he accomplished the impossible.

Would he face the same challenges that I did or would they be different?

Would he lose friendships? Did he meet his future wife? Had he started a YouTube channel documenting his transformation and made the career transition to fitness influencer?

The possibilities are endless.

These ideas could be the seedling of a character in story or the inspiration for a piece of art. More practically, they could be the beginnings of a new future you want to build for your life.

All of these imaginations are possible by simply asking, and taking seriously, the question "What if?"

What if you asked for the promotion and you actually got it. What would you do next?

What if the ornery old lady at the cafe was a supermodel in her youth grown bittered by age? What stories would she tell?

On a recent episode of How I Write, Harlen Coben called this the Writer's Mindset. In academic speak it's called counterfactual thinking which are both ways of describing a process of observation followed by asking "what if?"

This is how creative ideas start. It's the natural process of imagination and problem-solving that has powered human innovation for millennia. We walk by a stick and ask, "What if I used this to hunt that deer in the distance" and then we invent the spear.

On a practical level, I build this mindset into my life by writing down observations in my pocket notebook when they pique my interest.

Good candidates are snippets of conversation, unusual people, remarkable events, candid reflections, and stunning scenery.

A few details are all you need to remember the core of the moment.

Later I use these observations as creative prompts either while journaling, writing, or even while walking my dog. I've had many ideas that turn into something creative while daydreaming on a stroll.

So, get in the habit of writing down observations.

Then ask yourself, "What if?" and "What comes next?"

Prompt:

Write down one observation today. It can be anything from an expression on a face to an offhand comment by a barista. Then, spend a few minutes imagining a story that could come from it.