The quality of our life will depend a lot on the questions we ask. We can chose to not ask questions and just accept things, and our life will be stuck. Or we can ask questions. We can even dare to ask great questions.
Some questions aren’t going to help us much in life – at least not in the big picture. The question, “What’s for dinner?” probably isn’t going to inspire you to start a business, join a non-profit or talk to inner city kids. This isn’t wouldn’t quality as a great question.
Great questions are the questions that give us new perspective and change our life. Here are some examples of what great questions can do.
Discover Ourself
Some questions help us learn about ourself. I know, it’s kind of weird. You might wondering, “Don’t we already know all about ourself?” And the answer is, “no.” There are parts of ourself to which we are blind. When we discover our blind spots about ourself, we can tap into new strength, change a habit, or destroy a lie we’ve been telling ourself all these years.
A great question to ask others and learn about yourself is, “I’m learning the practice of soliciting feedback. If you were to give me one piece of advice right now, what would that be?” Then, you need to just keep quiet and write down whatever they say. They could be completely wrong. They could have a mis-perception about you. Or they could be revealing to you something that has been hidden from you for years.
Discover Meaning
Some questions help us tap into deeper meaning. For example, suppose we find ourself helping out at the local food bank frequently. It makes us feel good, so we continue to help out. Right now a great question would be, “why?” Or perhaps more directly, “Assuming I could volunteer anywhere, what is it about the food bank specifically that is drawing me?”
If we discover that there really is no other reason than its convenient, we’ve not yet found something that has a deeper meaning for us. But then we could chose to try out some other things on our quest for deeper meaning.
Another approach could be to just hit the big meaning topic straight up and ask questions like:
- “If I were to die today, would I really be satisfied with how I spent my years?”
- “What is the impact of my life?”
- “What is my purpose? What am I here for?”
- “What makes my heart sing?”
- “What breaks my heart?”
- “What work is God doing in my life lately?”
Drive Our Day
Then we can ask great questions about how we spend our day. Some great questions to accomplish this are:
- “What am I ultimately trying to accomplish?”
- “Am I effective? Am I producing the results I wanted?”
- “Is what I’m doing right now moving me closer to my goals?”
- “Is there something else (in addition, or instead of) that I can do that will produce a better result or produce it faster?”
- “Am I being the most loving person I can be today?”
- “Is there something new going on around me that I am missing?”
- “Is God directing this activity directly or indirectly?”
- “Am I showing up the way I want to show up today?”
Ultimately, the questions we chose to ask will drive our life and create the circumstance in which we find ourselves. Personally, my big questions are, “Do I love people well?” “Does my life matter?” What are the questions that are driving your life?
