Life Changing Questions Successful People Ask Themselves Often
If you want to think better, you have to ask better questions. Successful people tend to think at a higher level because they ask themselves higher-level questions. It is weird to think about it, but thinking is often just asking questions inside of your head. If you can sit down one day a month at most and run through these questions, you will see a drastic improvement in everything that you do.
Am I Outside of My Comfort Zone?
I honestly believe that is all starts here. When we are too comfortable with our surroundings growth is impossible. Successful people can’t deal with being the same and not growing, so they find ways to get uncomfortable.
We have all seen this play out in our lives. Its why I honestly think the best way to get uncomfortable is to make a big location move. The first big move I ever had been when I moved from Toronto to Iowa State for school.
It forced me to change in ways that I could never have even guessed.
The thing about being comfortable is that it just creeps on you. It’s not like you have an app on your phone that lets you know that you are comfortable. To notice you are too comfortable it often takes looking back. You realize that you have not been growing, you may have been having fun, but there is very little progress.
What is My Focus Right Now?
This is a huge place I have messed up in the past. Not only do I want to do a lot of things but I start my day, and I am all over the place. I will have five tabs open, I’ll be on my phone, and I’ll do everything but what I am supposed to do.
Successful people get things done though, and they do this by staying focused. They avoid being distracted by things that don’t matter. In the same way that there are always a million different things fighting for the money in your wallet, is the same way our focus is. Every hour of your day that you are awake there is something fighting to get your attention.
Focus is like constantly pulling out your compass. It reminds you of where you’re going, and it helps you to get there. At the time of writing this article, my focus was to get it finished, but the email was trying to get my focus, my phone wanted some, my hungry stomach wanted some and I have to keep checking in on my compass or I will become distracted.
Have I Spent Some Time In Silence?
Remember how I said that whenever you’re awake, there is something out there fighting for your focus? Well, this is how you fight this for good. Some people call it meditation, some call it prayer but, either way, you need it.
You need some time in your day where you are not plugged in. You do the opposite of what the world wants you to do. You get off of all the electronics. You sit on the ground and pray, you think about the positive things you want to see in your life, or you try your best to think about nothing.
I must be honest I don’t fully understand the power of this yet BUT what I do know is that a lot of successful people are fully behind meditation. All I know is that when I finish my time in silence, I feel amazing.
Have I Forgiven My Mistakes and Failures?
Letting go of the past is tougher for some than others because some of us just hold on to the past with the tightest grip. The truth though is successful people seem to keep moving forward. They don’t dwell on the negatives because it is too much time taken away from focusing on the positives.
You may have harmed someone and apologized for your wrong with a sincere heart. Whether they forgive you or not, you have to move on. When you hold on to all of these wrongs throughout your life it like trying to swim to your goals with weights attached to your ankles. If you’re really strong of a swimmer, you might make it but chances are you’re going to sink.
That’s the problem with these ankle weights. Sometimes we swim with them for so long, and because we have stayed afloat, we forget just how much they are slowing us down. Ditch the extra baggage so you can think and get back to your dreams.
What Is Holding Me Back?
Answering this is always a tough task because the answer is usually one we don’t like. It often involves changing something that we don’t want to change. I have seen people have everything they need to succeed but the one thing have to do next is wake up early, but they just try and avoid it at all costs. They tell themselves that they are a not a morning person and allow that to continue to hold them back.
Go into every month with a solid answer to this question for the month. If you can identify what is holding you back and stop it from doing so, then you would have to assume that you would slingshot forward towards your goals.
Am I Working Efficiently?
This is another tough question because sometimes we don’t even know what efficient work even is. Most people are not as busy as they think they are. They are just inefficient with their time. There is a huge difference between just doing things to say you put in the time and doing things because they will have the largest impact.
Sometimes we avoid doing the meaningful work that we need to do because we know that it is difficult. We keep doing a bunch of tiny tasks that make us feel good but are not an efficient use of our time.
This is a question that you must ask every day, and it is very interconnected with being focused and sticking to your to-do list. If you write you to do list in order of the most important task to least important based off of your focus, you will have no problem being efficient.
