The Power of Questions

Hi Everyone,

I had a meeting this evening that ended with us talking about questions and how important they are. Now that might sound like a strange topic but questions really do guide our thoughts and our lives. How? Good question!

1. They determine the direction that the conversation is moving toward.

2. They place limits on information. For example, if you ask a child how their day in school went, you often get "Fine" or "Good." Ask them a more open ended question and youget a more detailed answer.

Sometimes we don't ask enough. One of the people at the meeting lost his cell phone
this week and asked the provider if he could get a free replacement. They said he couldn't. Someone else at the meeting said he didn'task enough. He might have asked what he had to do to get a free one which might only have involved extending his contract for another year.

3. They determine our mood. Ask yourself a question like, "Why does everything always happen to me?" or what I consider one of the worst questions to ask yourself, "What elsecould go wrong?"

The funny or not so funny thing about these questions is that our brain answers them. Do you really want to know the answer to why everything always happens to you or what else could go wrong?

When I was teaching my Strategies of Success class, I devoted a couple of lessons to the power of questions. We worked at coming up with questions that improved our day and the students often competed for the 'best question.

Here are some of our favorites:
1. What am I grateful for?
2. What made me smile today?
3. What cool thing is going to happen today?

Asking questions opens the door to our minds. What questions are you asking yourself? Are they improving your day or adding to your daily stress?

What good questions might you ask? Send me your favorites and I'll share them!

What can you do after you read this that will either make your day or someone elses?
Get it?

Strategies of Success: Providence

Hi Everyone...

If you've been reading my SOS newsletters recently,you know that I was recently in Chicago, a city I fell in love with. Why? The wide streets, the lake,the flowers everywhere, the beautiful architectureold and modern, the river that runs through the city.

Today as I was driving home from a wonderful surprise birthday party for a friend of mine, I hadto take a detour because an accident was blockingmy normal way home. So I drove though the citythat I've lived ten minutes from for most of my life - Providence.

And I looked around and noticed...wide streets,the bay, flowers everywhere, the beautifularchitecture old and modern, the river that runsthrough the city. Wait a minute...that's beenhere all this time and I never truly noticed??

Yup...pretty true. I've taken it for granted...the Waterfire (waterfire.org) along our river that is trulyunique, the Tony award winning Trinity RepertoryCompany, the art along the river most likelyconnected with the renown Rhode Island Schoolof Design, college hill with Brown University,...I could go on and on...

I remember a week ago telling my Dad I'd liketo live in Chicago for month, maybe San Diego.He asked what about Vancouver and Toronto - twoof my favorite Canadian cities...and then heasked, "What about Boston?" Now I'm thinking...

What about Providence? Yes, I love my travelsbut have I really appreciated what's right in front of me? I'm not so sure I have. When weare surrounded by the familiar, our thoughts arenot on what makes them special, but on whateverelse is going on in our lives. We focus on thequickest way through, or worry about being late,or so many other necessities which we don't tend to do when we're somewhere 'special'.

What's in your life that might need another look?The people in your life...do we see what makes themspecial, or just what needs fixing? Do we seethe things we dislike about our jobs or the reasonwe wanted them in the first place? Are we alwayswishing we were somewhere else when where we areis worth truly looking at?

Look around, pay attention...appreciate...we eachhave so much more than we often realize.

Thanks Providence...lesson learned...