About Steven Aitchison
Update: Please click on this link for more information about The new Mind Alchemy course. All the links to the downloads have now been removed. I would like to thank all 800+ readers who expressed an interest in this course and for everyone who completed the course the first time round, it is becasue of you I could make the course better.
Before we start
A few readers are now blogging about their experiences on the course, and it would be great to lend your support:
Stacy Claflin – Grow With Stacy
Marty BoneIdol – Living Life in Chapters
Stephen – New Life Starts Here
Read the interview I have done with Angela Artemis from Powered by Intuition
Watch an interview I made with Suzie Cheel on Mind Alchemy
Mind Alchemy Day 15
Today we are going to be looking at the questions we ask ourselves day in and day out.
I had originally planned to put this topic into the course, but then took it out in favour of ‘Affirmations’. However as I was reading over the course again I realised that the topic of ‘The Questions we ask ourselves’ is a much more powerful exercise and, is much more effective in changing our thoughts.
Personal development means absolutely nothing unless we are ready to change. We can read a hundred books, attend a hundred seminars, read a million blogs but it still won’t change us unless we are ready to change. A lot of us are looking for answers but we still haven’t formulated a question. Questions are key to solving anything whether it be a mathemtical problem or your own life.
James Dyson asked the question; How could I get rid of the bag in the hoover (vacuum) without losing suction?
Richard Branson asked the question: How can I compete with the big airlines?
Robert Scoble asked the question: How can I change Microsoft’s public image?
Darren Rowse asked the question: How can I make money blogging
Once you’ve formulated your question how do you know it’s the right question?
The answer to that is: when it moves you toward a positive outcome for the good of yourself and harms no other.
I have a friend who has been been trying to get out of his current job for 2 years. The benefits and salary are the key things that hold him there. I have asked him several times ‘If you left your job just now, what would you want to do?’, to this day he still doesn’t know what he wants to do. He knows if he seriously asks himself this question it will be a step closer to making a decision and leaving the company. So if he doesn’t ask the question he can go on with his life and complain about his job.
It takes balls to ask the right question
There are many people in the situation I described above and many people who have still not asked the right questions and deep down don’t want to. Questions drive us forward, right questions change our lives.
Think about this scenario and the questions we could ask:
You’re overweight and you want to lose a few pounds. You’ve lost a few pounds and are quite pleased with yourself and your progress. You are looking in the cupboards one day and see that packet of biscuits that the kids have not seen (rarely ever happens, but it could). What questions do you ask?
Will one biscuit really do any harm? It’s only got 100 calories, surely that’s not going to harm me? I’ve done so well I should have some reward? Are these the right questions to ask.
Any overweight person knows, deep down, they are not. The right questions to ask in this situation could be:
If I have this biscuit will it disrupt my program? Will this one biscuit throw out all the good work I’ve done? Will this one biscuit lead to another one? I’ve done so well, it’s crazy to stop now isn’t it?
Asking the right questions takes guts.
Changing your questions
If you are stuck in a situation and you have been asking yourself questions which are not driving you forward in some way, try asking a different set of questions.
Todays exercise
Download a copy of todays exercise here
Download an example copy here
How to change your questions to change your life
Break your outcomes down
If you have big outcomes, break them down. For example if want to lose 30 pounds, start asking how you could lose 2 pounds. Do this 15 times and you have reached your outcome. Sound too simple, that’s because it is, it’s our thinking that makes it hard.
Think of 5 questions for each problem
We can’t solve problems with the same questions we asked when the problem was first created.
We often ask ourselves the same question over and over again. Ask 5 different questions to a problem you might be stuck with and start answering them all.
Ask questions all the time
Ask yourself questions in every area of your life. How can I make my kids happier? How can I free up more time for myself? How can I work smarter? How could this process be improved? How can I become more organised?
When you ask questions in all areas of your life, you will gradually learn to ask good questions and filter out the bad questions. Practice is the key to changing your life and asking questions is a great skill to have.
What do you want to change in your life today?
Ask yourself this question often as we often get stuck in our life and stop
thinking about what would make it better.
Tomorrow
Tomorrow we will looking at organizing your life to organize your mind. Until tomorrow my fellow Mind Alchemists……..
Action follows a thought…
This course is about taking action, and to become pro active in changing your life. Take time to do this exercise and really think about it throughout the day. You don’t need to wait until tomorrow to take steps to improve your ‘Wheel of Life’, but with the support and encouragement from all the members we can help each other and support each other, but ultimately ‘you have to bring something to the table!’
Your thoughts
As always it’s good to talk about your experiences and share it with the rest of the members of the course, so let us know how this exercise went for you and if you gained any insights or had any revelations about yourself or your life.
You can share your thoughts at Mind Alchemy Facebook Group
You can Tweet using the hashtag #MindAlchemy
Or of course you can leave a comment below
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Just found this challenge. I look forward to getting started, albeit a bit late! Look forward to following the progress of other readers.
Alison Moore Smith recently posted..Michelle Obama and the Food Police
Looking forward to working with you Alison
Hi Steven, I noticed your topic with extra interest today because I have been working with the same topic this morning
That is, using questions to get forward in life. I have found that when you have a question, conscious or unconscious the answer will come to you in some way.
Using questions can be used as a form of self therapy. It might save a lot of money if you become able to solve some of your problems on your own.
Tom Sörhannus recently posted..Brain Balance
Hi Tom, I think you’re absolutely correct about having good questions, conscious or unconsciously, and your mind figuring out a way to find the answers.
This is a great exercise. I ask questions all the time but I dont always answer them. Breaking them down into several parts is helpful. I think this will help me ask the right questions and then be able to answer them. (just a suggestion, but the ‘takes balls’ put me off a bit….lol)
Hi Kathy, I know what you mean about the balls part
It is the way I talk so trying to be as authentic as possible and keeping to the real me, hopefully it doesn’t offend too much.
Time to get out the thesaurus – chutzpah, audacity, pluck…
You know we all understood the way you phrased it.
One thing I consistently notice about successful people is that they are constantly asking questions. No question is too dumb in the business world. And there is no reason to be afraid to ask “dumb” questions about ourselves. The ego would love to dismiss simple questions as too trite to be bothered with — and more often than not these are the questions we need to ponder most. Great stuff, Steven.
rob white recently posted..Reality of Accountability
Hi Rob. I was always taught at school not to ask too many questions, however when i went to university we were taught that ‘no question is too dumb’, higher thinking demands we ask all the questions that come to mind, only then can we learn to filter our questions, effectively answering the questions which we once thought of as being ‘dumb’. The more questions we ask, the more effective we become at asking better questions. Thanks for your thoughts Rob, always thought provoking.
This morning in psychology class we where learning about finishing sentences, for example: ask yourself how you can increase the happiness in your life by 5% or what is happiness for you? or If I allow myself to say yes when I want to say yes and no when I want to say no.. the exercise was to finish those exercises…
I found with Steven’s exercise this helps us to narrow down our focus even more, my girlfriend always says to me the following: “ask yourself questions and your mind will know the answer to your questions, conscious or unconsciously” this is so true. All in all I like this course and this exercise.
Glad you liked this one Engilbert.
The questions are difficult to ask. I was, for years, like your friend. I didn’t complain about my job as I chose to stay, but I didn’t ask myself the questions because to ask them would have been to realize that I wanted something different and for me, that is akin to taking the first step toward leaving.
Monday I was told that the job I currently have will not exist in a few months and it would be good to explore options as they don’t know what things will look like for me. I was excited. The timing isn’t great as I want to have another year enjoying my daughter’s elementary school years and that flexible parenting I enjoy now – but I am excited about the opportunities!
What do I want to do – I want to be in corporate responsibility. I want to work and create and build opportunities that benefit the community and the company and the employees and the citizens. And I realize that I have to create this myself as we have such offices but they are small and largely (??) fronts without a lot of meat. But the idea excites me in ways I can’t fully describe.
So how to reflect me and my energy and creativity in my CV – and how to create a position that matters in this area and in this field!!
Hi, I think sometimes we are forced into asking questions of ourselves, as in your situation. It’s great that you have seen this as a positive and are excited about a new challenge and I wish you all the best.
I haven’t got round to fully focussing on this task yet. With a bit of self awareness, I’m giving myself a little bit of space today and will catch up later.
Interestingly enough, I used something similar in a speaking fashion with a client today. Using the question “What can you do about…..?” “What else can you do? is quite motivating for people. It works!
Marty recently posted..Letting go your Outcomes – The pinball effect
Hey Marty, hope you’re giving yourself space to get things sorted out.
Hi Steven,
This is great! I have only just stumbled across the series – I will go back and start from the beginning – Will you be keeping the course material available for a while after it is run?
Thanks for all of this great information Steven!
Hi Jaunita, the course materials will be up until mid March and then the course will be revised and put out again in April/May time.
I have heard about this asking questions a few times recently and now that you have placed this in the course I know that I need to give this a really good effort! I love affirmations and have had a lot of success with them but I can really see how asking questions can really take it to the next level by getting the subconscious working harder to help make it happen. I’m looking forward to seeing how this works out!
Thanks,
Stacy
Stacy recently posted..Letting Go and Clearing Your Mind
Let us know how you get on Stacy, your thoughts have been invaluable on this course.
Hey Steven,
Great Exercise! I always found myself doing this, but asking the wrong questions that got me no where. I am excited to ask myself new questions that can direct me in different directions and motivate myself with different ideas. I always like it when others ask me questions that make me think, and push me. It’s about time I start asking myself the same types of questions. It seems quite obvious now, but I never took those steps. And with how confusing life can be, it’s easy to forget that I’m in charge, and asking questions can help my focus.
Thanks!
Hi Angel, glad this exercise helped you in some way. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this.
Great one there about asking questions! It’s true that many people avoid asking questions because they already know that they would have to face up to the answers. I like what you said, “Asking the right questions takes guts.”
Evelyn Lim recently posted..How to Create A Personal Energy Shield For Protection
Hi Evelyn, thanks for your comments on this. It does take huts to ask the right questions, as we instinctively know the answers to the questions already.
I always say that if you ask yourself a disempowering question then you will give yourself a disempowering answer. Questions are powerful. They are a double whammy… disempowering questions are basically TWO negative thoughts in one. Use that double whammy to your advantage and ask Empowering Questions instead… Great article Steven.
Susan Liddy recently posted..What do you think about your body image
Hi Susan, I totally agree with you about asking disempowering questions. Thanks for your comments Susan, always appreciated.