What should I do? No, but seriously, what should I do?
That’s a common question I ask and one that my clients ask me. If I’m really honest, I often think that I’d like someone to give me answers to the big and little questions of life. I’ve been known to (over)think about how to solve a problem or what do to do in a situation.
I’m a pretty good doer-of-things and yet sometimes that doesn’t serve me. Sometimes I need to stop looking for answers; stop doing, stop planning, stop managing, stop controlling.
In those times I’m reminded of the power of asking questions.
If you’ve heard the recent buzz about fixed mindset versus growth mindset, this is my simple way of understanding it:
When I’m fixated on looking for answers, what I see tends to be narrow (fixed).
When I shift into asking questions, what I see expands and multiplies. Answers that I didn’t even consider or know existed suddenly seem possible (growth).
For example, maybe you’ve been struggling to figure out how to get your team at work to reach a certain outcome. If you’re a leader, or in charge of a certain deliverable, you probably are trying to come up with the answer. Totally normal…and maybe you’ve hit a point of feeling stuck because the answers aren’t coming. What questions could you ask instead? Who could help you expand your thinking? Where could you go to get different insights? These questions all start to expand your view point and help you see things in a much different light.
Where are you feeling stuck? Where is an old pattern of looking for answers no longer serving you? What questions can you start asking instead?
