The Right Question. And maybe “42” is OUR answer after all.
The RIGHT QUESTION.
We tend to think that the right answer will change our life. At least I tend to.
If only we knew that RIGHT answer, that solves THE problem. If only we knew the answer, the secret… Our life would change. We would get to be happy, right?
Doing yoga.
My mind goes places.
“Why can’t you do that? Why can’t you figure all your shit out? Why is your life still not working the way you want? What’s wrong with you?”
Another breath.
Plank. Push-up. Upward dog. Push-up. Downward dog. Right leg flies high. The foot is between my hands. Up. Warrior One.
“The question is flawed. The question is wrong. There is no answer to that stupid question, because I indeed CAN do that, I indeed CAN figure all my shit out, and I indeed CAN make my life work exactly the way I want.”
I can go to that SU Summit in Mumbai at the end of the month. I can and will apply to SU summer program. I can get in there, because I believe I have something valuable to contribute. I’m ready to give it all of me and work for it.
The Right Question is “How can I make it happen?”
How can I make it happen? What steps do I take? What do I do today? Now?
That points my mind into completely different direction. That gives me completely different state. That gives me energy. That gives me ideas. That creates a doable action plan and a clear vision.
I’ve recently read a very inspiring book about the greatest mind of our generation Elon Musk.
“Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future”
He accomplished amazing things, and if he asked questions like, “Why can’t I…”, there probably would not be a Tesla Model S, there probably would not be SpaceX and cheaper rockets, there probably would not be a NASA mission to Mars, there probably would not be a chase between Tesla and GM working their asses off to create an affordable mass-market electric car as soon as possible.
Yes, Elon probably did not contemplate those questions. Not for long, that’s for sure.
He asked himself, what he could do to make it happen instead. Why am I so sure of it? Because he managed to do the impossible, he made shit happen, extraordinary shit! Shit like that doesn’t come easy to anyone. Not a single person alive.
Now I got myself a fancy question to upgrade my life mission, my energy, to change my state of mind, to give me different plans for my future and for my today.
Any time I feel like I’m too small for my goals, any time I feel helpless and not able to accomplish things I want to accomplish, not able to get the shit done, I ask myself,
“What would Elon Musk do?”
Having set his mind on a mission, would he sit around and whine? Pondering on the questions, why he can’t do, what he believes in, why he is not enough, why somebody else is better for the job…
Would he?
No, he wouldn’t.
So get off your butt and start massive actions! — Advice to myself.
And yes, there are people who have more opportunities and resources right now. And yes, there are people who are smarter than me. And yes, there are people with PhDs and hell of a lot more education and experience. And yes, I’m 28 and some people might think (I am one of them), that it just might be too late and I should have started earlier…But … FUCK IT!!! All of it!
I have a huge heart, amazing brain, health vitality and energy more than anyone I know, I have an incredible passion to make people the most long-living beautiful creations we were meant to be! And heck, I plan to live to 932 years young (Don’t ask me why that particular number, cause I have no idea), and I have more than enough time to do whatever the hell I dream about and much more.
The Right Question.
Questions change life. The biggest challenge is to come up with the right ones. The ones that make us create the life we want to live. The rest is garbage…
“that one of the really tough things is figuring out what questions to ask,” Musk said. “Once you figure out the question, then the answer is relatively easy. I came to the conclusion that really we should aspire to increase the scope and scale of human consciousness in order to better understand what questions to ask.”
When something is not working in our life, it’s not that we don’t know what to do. We are asking the wrong questions. Because we don’t believe in ourselves, in our success. Because we are not interested in actions, but in excuses not to take actions. Because to have a stupid unanswerable question is easier than to come up with the RIGHT question, that inevitably will make us do shit out of our comfort zone, and will eventually change our life into something we are not sure of.
My life always expanded exponentially, when I asked the right questions. Most of my life I’ve been asking stupid questions. I have a good one now. You can borrow it, if it works for you.
“What would Elon Musk do?”
Or come up with your own. Better one.
What can you take away today to improve your life?
Struggling with something in your life?
Not exactly satisfied with where you are in your life?
Come up with the RIGHT question.
Set of questions directing your mind into seeking the solution that will change your life.
We all get the answers. The exact ones we need. Always.
“The promise that a supercomputer can and will deliver the answer to life’s greatest mysteries is brilliantly parodied in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, when a supercomputer delivers first an enigmatic answer (42) and then an offer to instead design a computational system requiring a 10 million year timeline to compose the ultimate question.”
It’s funny. But it’s not such a sci-fi fantasy after all. We just might already have that computer having ALL the answers for each and every one of us to make work whatever it is we want to work.
