14 Oct What if happiness came from asking the right questions rather than having all the answers?
As a therapist and more recently as a coach/mentor, I’ve always been trained to ask questions more than provide answers.
This approach was designed so that the clients come up with their own answers, which is something I wholeheartedly believe we all need to do.
And increasingly, in my personal and professional life, I’ve come to believe more and more strongly that happiness and success come from asking, rather than answering.
Because happiness and success are always changing, asking the right questions means we can constantly come up with different answers; whereas having the answers NOW might not help us in the future.
Which brings me to today’s blog posting and 11 great questions you can ask yourself each and every day to improve and keep enjoying happiness…
via Business Insider by Rachael Gillett
Benjamin Franklin began and ended each day with a question: “What good shall I do this day?” in the morning, and “What good have I done this day?” in the evening.
In fact, many great thinkers embraced the idea of constantly questioning things.
As Albert Einstein reportedly said, “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.”
Of course, getting into the habit of self-reflection is easier said than done, as we often prefer to avoid asking ourselves the tough questions. As philosopher and psychologist John Dewey explained in his 1910 book, “How We Think,” reflective thinking involves overcoming our predisposition to accept things at face value and the willingness to endure mental unrest.
But enduring this discomfort is well worth the effort, as it can result in the confidence boost necessary to perform better in our work and daily lives.
To help kickstart your habit of self-reflection, here are 11 daily questions you can start asking today:
1. If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?
In 2005, about a year after he received his pancreatic cancer diagnosis, Apple’s then-CEO Steve Jobs told Stanford’s graduating class that, for 33 years, he would look in the mirror every morning and ask himself, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?”
If the answer was “No” for too many days in a row, he says he know he needed to change something.
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important,” Jobs explained. “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
2. How do I see myself?
“This questions gets at your likely unspoken beliefs about who you are,” writes Wanleo.com founder and CEO Deena Varshavskaya on Quora.
She says that changing how you see yourself in various situations can also change your actions and, ultimately, who you are.
“An example: if you see yourself as an unproven entrepreneur, the focus of your actions will be to prepare for later when you are more proven. By changing this to start looking at yourself simply as a hard working and capable entrepreneur, you can change what actions you take, who you chose to speak to, and so on,” she writes.
3. Is getting rich worth it?
“It changed the way I looked at life, and it might change yours too,” writes Quora user David Liew.
Liew points to another Quora user’s response to the Quora question, “Is getting rich is worth it?” as one of the most insightful responses:
“Most people hold the illusion that if only they had more money, their life would be better and they would be happier. Then they get rich, and that doesn’t happen, and it can throw them into a serious life crisis.
If you’re part of the middle class, you have just as many opportunities to do with your life what you want of it. If you’re not happy now, you won’t be happy because of money.”
Asking if getting rich is worth what you’re about to do or if it’s worth being your primary motivator daily could help you adjust your priorities and prevent you from making some big mistakes…
…keep reading the full & original article HERE