Everything we teach centers around the power of the questions we craft.
How important are the questions we ask?
Just as a lens, put in front of our eyes, will change the world we see, even before we open our eyes…
our questions change our future, before the answers even arrive.
Celebrate – What were my high points, peak experiences, or moments where i/we felt most alive in 2022? What did I or others do, to support these moments? What did they look like, sound like and feel like?
The power of this question lies in studying the moments and experiences that we want to create more of. We become what we study. Let’s study what brought us alive.
Learn – Where did i struggle, was I challenged, or tested? And how can I see these experiences as teachers, sources of wisdom, gifting me with lessons? What will it look like to reinvest these learnings into 2023?
This question helps us harvest value-added distinctions, even from our low points, which often hold what we most need, for our own evolutionary leap.
Appreciate – No matter what changes about me, my world or my work, in 2023, what do I want to honor, nurture, protect or preserve? What strengths, values, relationships or opportunities can I presence, before looking ahead?
This line of questioning strengthens our appreciative intelligence. The appreciable world is often so much greater than our eyes are trained to see. What we appreciate will appreciate.
Imagine – A year from now, what would I most like to be celebrating? Both outcomes I’ve created – at home, at work, etc. – but who have I become and what qualities have I embodied?
Few questions can unlock energy and fuel as much as an invitation to bring the future into the texture of the present moment. The more we see, hear, and feel the future we most desire, the more viscerally we can affect who we are, in the present.
Reinvent – For my future visions to become true, what in my life needs to die? And what will be born in it’s place? What parts of myself need to be hospiced, so that the room, energy and potential for the new is multiplied?
This is a soul searching line of questioning. Best enjoyed, possibly while deep in nature. Death and birth are natural cycles of any living system – from human beings to large organizations. The courage to face these questions will equate to our ability to evolve in the ways that matter most.
Act – Is there a commitment, action or first step that moves me/us towards the images and possibilities we’ve explored for our future? Are there immediate, small steps to take? Or, is there something big, bold and brave that can be done?
Any movement towards the futures we contemplate, can begin to build life giving momentum.