The best goals are meaningful to you. A goal with purpose leads to a more fulfilling live. If you found yourself giving up to early on pursuing your goals, chances are, that these goals are not inspiring enough to you.
Warren Berger teaches in his book “A More Beautiful Question” to ask the right questions to venture on any journey of success. These will also spark creativity.
If you look at children, you find they have endless supply of questions. If you answer one of those you can find yourself in an endless spiral of “And why is this?”. Every answer opens five new questions.
This immense curiosity is degraded over the years in school, when children learn to memorize. Recite facts and tell what teachers want to hear to get good grades.
After some years people will find themselves stuck on a linear road without many perspectives.
But when you learn to think and ask as you did as child, you will see new opportunities for your personal and professional life.
Asking questions is a powerful tool to challenge the status quo and get really innovative. This ignites creativity and stimulates new ideas. World’s best pioneers asked the best questions.
Learn to ask “Why” again.
This will quickly lead you to the edges of knowledge. This is powerful for personal improvement. You will find out which personal limits you can improve. And also for learning. The further you get with your Whys and find answers, the better you can incorporate new knowledge.
The most beautiful questions, according to Berger, are “Why?”, “Why Not?”, “What if?” and “How?”. They can spark a creative out-of-the-box thinking that weren’t possible otherwise.
Asking questions is a far better attitude for any brainstorm session. Typically, in such a session everyone tries to find answers. This restricts the participants to have solutions, which only can come from a narrow perspective.
The opposite of the goal of brainstorming. When you encourage participants to ask questions instead, you come up with more diverse ideas. If you promote the “there are no dumb questions” frame, creative thoughts will flow like never before.
Last but not least, many of you know the SMART features of any good goal. That is, a good goal is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time bound. Even better goals are SMARTY – that is, you know the “Why?” (Y) of your goal.
If you don’t have this “Why?”, a purpose or meaning connected to your important core values, you will lose steam on your path to success. Only with a “Why?” will you have enough energy to overcome obstacles.
Now it’s your time!
What is your biggest dream? Why is it important to you?
Yours
Konrad
Learn More: Warren Berger’s book A More Beautiful Question
