Ask Better Questions, Transform Your Life
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Have you considered the questions you ask — to yourself and others?
Do you tend to ask questions that lead to yes-and-no or finite answers, or do you ask questions that are open-ended?
Building awareness and consciously shifting the way you ask questions can have a significant impact on your life.
It’s easy to ask better questions
While we tend to operate on automatic in many circumstances, bringing a small bit of attention to the way you frame questions will make a world of difference to what follows.
To begin asking other people better, open-ended questions today, start with the words “How,” or “What.”
Some examples of questions you might ask others, that lead to expansive conversations are:
What possibilities have you considered?
How would you describe...?
What did you learn from that experience?
How did that person impact you?
What excites you the most these days?
Examples of questions you can frame for yourself, that can open fresh trains of thought are:
What mattered most about that experience?
What else might I have considered or tried?
What would be a great outcome of exploring that option?
How could that conversation have ended differently?
What other responses might I consider now, that could lead to a satisfying outcome?
Experiment with what shows up in your day today. See how many opportunities there are to frame open-ended questions, and how many ways to ask them you come up with.
Why asking better questions makes life better
Questions like the examples above are great for many reasons:
When you begin a questions with “How,” or “What” you elicit richer responses.
The responses you’ll hear will be more descriptive.
You are prompted to think more deeply.
Thus you learn more.
And the insights that come to light are likely to spark fresh approaches you might never have considered.
You also deepen connections in richer conversations.
The benefits grow over time
Improving the questions you ask will likely disrupt habitual patterns — habits of thinking and ways of responding to particular situations.
The more you ask better questions the more you create sparks that help you see and consider fresh perspectives and envision new possibilities.
You will see new ways you can take action, as well as new ways of interacting with others.
When seeing everything through a fresh lens becomes a routine experience, you will naturally be more curious, rather than defaulting to knee-jerk or old safe approaches to circumstances in front of you.
All of which amplifies the creative power you bring into all aspects of your work and life.
That powerful energy changes the way you see the world and the way you show up in the world.
You will feel more positive, have more confidence, and experience more agency as you move through life.
Ask great questions today and ignite the process!
