The questions you ask are manifestations of the uncertainties that reside within you. A question is a marker of ‘lack of clarity’. Why, then, are questions so important?
Some questions are more basic, like ‘What’s the time right now?’ and others may stem from something more profound, like ‘What’s the purpose of my life?’. The goal is to either gather more information or gain better clarity.
Such is the power of a question that, if framed correctly and put forth to the right person, can leave you either more aware or, at the least, more informed. Hence, asking the right questions is crucial for progressing towards your goal or understanding yourself and life better.
For instance,
- Asking ‘What can I change about my approach?’ is more likely to help you break out of the rut than ‘Why am I so unlucky?’
- Asking ‘Which workout and diet plan best suits my body type?’ is more likely to help you get fitter than ‘How long does it take to get a six-pack?’
- Asking ‘What are the things I care about deeply?’ is more likely to add substance to your life than ‘How can I quadruple my earnings by the next year?’
However, asking the right questions is easier said than done. Social conditioning or a superficial understanding of yourself and what you need can make you ask the wrong questions: questions that are borrowed and merely tweaked but never really yours. As a result, the answers learned will never really hit home and the solutions proposed will never really resolve the real issues.
And so, asking the right questions requires a certain minimum level of awareness, and the answers learned or solutions gained through such questions borne out of awareness lead to better clarity. Just as money begets (more) money, clarity begets more clarity (through the right questions). Just as the rich get richer, the aware become more aware.
Questions are powerful tools, for they can lead you, one question at a time, to a place of complete clarity where no uncertainty remains, and hence, neither does any question.