Answers Begin With Questions - Grasshopper

In a world looking for answers, I believe we too often overlook the key to answers: Questions!

We have been conditioned to have the answer and, by god, have it quickly. In an effort to do that, we go through a laundry list of pat answers that haven't worked before and pick one that won't work again. And then we wonder why life isn't working.

 

Reacquaint yourself with the question.

 

Start asking questions from a variety of different angles - angles you haven't used before.

 

One of the most useful questions I've found to open up different angles is: What would happen if?

 

"What would happen to chair design if your knees bent in the opposite direction?" is one question I remember from a book on creativity I read years ago.

 

You may never come up with "the" answer, but it's the exploration of the puzzling question that expands the answer part of your brain to come up with a piece you haven't considered before.

 

Questions engage your curiosity and your creativity. The purpose of asking questions isn't necessarily to come up with the one answer; its purpose is to open you up to possibilities you may have never considered, from which you can select new and improved answers.

 

If you're asking questions the same old way and getting the same old answers, you need a new approach. "What would happen if?" is just one way to go. I'm sure you can come up with your own tasty line of questioning which will give you a new flavor of answers.

 

Answers begin with questions. I wonder how soon you'll answer the call and begin asking questions you don't know the answer to.

 

All the best,

John