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“Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.”
Anthony Robbins
“The one who asks questions doesn’t lose his way”
African Proverb
Asking yourself questions is a great way to keep yourself on track in day to day life. Cutting out and letting go of irrelevant stuff can help you to simplify and relaxify your life. It can help you to find more time for the things that are fun and really important to you.
So combining these two things can be very helpful. Here are three quick questions that can help you to cut irrelevant stuff out of your life.
As you use the questions more and more they tend to start to pop up almost automatically at useful points in your everyday life.
1. Who cares?
A very simple but a very powerful question. Whenever you feel like delving into some nitpicking or some pettiness ask yourself this question. Or whenever you feel an overwhelming need to be right in some discussion.
Yes, nitpicking or having to be right can give you sort of high. You feel good. But it’s a dirty high. It never lasts for long. And you just create a lot of negativity within yourself and outside of yourself in the long run.
Asking yourself “who cares?” is a way to lighten up, to not take every little thing so seriously. It’s way be more open and relaxed with yourself and the people around you. It’s simply a way to be cool about stuff.
2. What is the most important thing I can do right now?
If you are lost in what to do next in your day, week or life, ask yourself this question. The answer might not always be what you want to hear because the most important thing is often one of the harder things you want to do too. But it can help you to check your priorities and stop you from getting lost in busy work – or Facebook or checking some inboxes/blog statistics etc. over and over during the day – and instead start tackling the big stuff.
3. Will this matter in 5 years?
This one can really puts things into perspective. It can make just about any difficulty that you are having right now seem a bit trivial and not as important and heavy as you had imagined the last few days, weeks and months. You may discover that you had expanded a problem and made it a lot more terrifying than it actually is. And that you can actually solve it more easily than you thought you while you were in a somewhat panicked state of mind.
It’s a bit similar to the first question, so try them both when faced with a appropriate situation and find out what works best for you.
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Brilliant blog post! These three questions will indeed cut out the nonsense in one’s life for sure. It’s funny because I have a blog post going up tomorrow that focuses exactly on your #1 point…”Who Cares”.
Thanks for the great read!
Dayne
TheHappySelf.com
Care less is a good way to stay happy. Ignorance is a bliss. There is some truth in that proverb. Great article Hendrik
When I am afraid of living with too little, I also ask the question “What is the worst that can happen? If I have nothing to lose and go bankrupt, well then I lost nothing.”
Truly simple questions that cut to the heart of the matter and get perspective on what to choose to allow into your life.
As you use the questions more and more they tend to start to pop up almost automatically at useful points in your everyday life.
Very true. It’s a great awareness compass.
Fantastic questions. I know that everyone who reads this post will really benefit from asking these!
Hi Henrik,
First time to your blog. Nice to meet you.
Very practical advice here. I think the “who cares” one is great. For that to work people need to learn humility.
Good post. The most powerful changes I’ve made in my own life have come from the moments I’ve asked myself the right questions. In fact, this is how I brainstorm stuff. I keep asking myself questions and then answering them with a new question until I hit the root of what I want to solve. Very effective way to arrive at the right decision or the root issue of a problem. It can get time consuming though.
I have found asking the first two questions helpful, but not so much the third one. I find it difficult to project what will matter in the far future, but sizing up a challenge and determining what I can do about it right now takes care of the future.
Thanks for sharing these questions.
Nice three questions to put things in perspective!
I guess overall you are saying that we need to have some long term perspective, preparing for something wonderful things to happen.
Again I like the way you write. It is practical. Nice.
Thanks,
Hwa
Hey Henrik. I really like these questions that you came up with – who cares, what’s the most important thing to do right now, and will this matter in 5 years? I think these questions will not only loosen up one’s troubles and worries, but will also help one become more productive on a day-to-day basis.
Things that we worry about may not eventuate. In five years time we can honestly say It doesnt matter after all………… what is important is now ………… what can we do and change for the better at this present time……….. I am trying to be optimistic……….It is my baby step for the I will reach it…….. one day at a time
Thanks for the comments and insights, guys. I appreciate them.
I have to agree with Flora Morris Brown, Ph.D. to a certain point. We don’t *always* know what will matter in five years from now. Sometimes we need to tend to urgent stuff, like car payments, or bills etc. On the flip side, if we know where we want to be in 1 year, 2 years 5 years or 10, we can give a ball park estimate whether or not it actually matters. But I suppose the 5 can be changed to 1 or 2 or even 20 depending on the dates we’ve set on our goals.
I use the second one everyday as well!
Great post!
Cheers
Clinton Skakun
I agree with the premises of these questions, but five years is often too far sighted. Instead I ask whether something will matter six months to a year. Maybe this is because I am college student and my life right now is kind of filled with drastically quick changes.