Judge a person by their questions, rather than their answers. Because asking the right questions is often the answer.
In a recent email newsletter I wrote: “Quiet your mind. Don’t think outside the box in the year ahead. Think like there is no box.”
To my surprise, over 100 people quoted this line and responded with the same general question: “How?”
I’ve spent the morning thinking about how to answer this question in the most universal way possible, and I’ve decided that the simplest explanation I can give is this: Ask yourself better questions – questions that focus your thoughts and filter out the excess noise that’s been cluttering your mind.
The calming and healing power of a positive imagination is unleashed by constraining your focus. Constraints drive creativity and force mindful thinking. It may sound counterintuitive at first but, in a backwards way, you break out of the box by stepping into the right shackles.
And that’s exactly what the questions below can help you with – shackling the noise in your head by channeling your focus into meaningful thoughts and moments of self-refection. Let these questions shift your perspective and guide you forward.
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Please share this post with others who you think will benefit from it, and, as always, share your thoughts with us in the comments section below. If you’re up to it, I’d love to read your response to the very first question: In one sentence, who are you?
(Also note that these photo-illustrated questions were initially created for our sister site, Thought Questions, but since we rarely update that site, we decided to share the questions with you here instead. And many of these questions have also been slightly modified and used in our upcoming guided journal, “The Good Morning Journal”, which is being published by Penguin Random House.)
For photo credits please refer to ThoughtQuestions.com
