3 Important Things They Should Teach Us In School To Help us Face Problems in a Better Way.

Questions, questions, questions. Everything starts with questions.

The thing is most of us are blissfully unaware that there are good questions and bad questions.

There are the questions that empower us and the questions that disempower us. Questions that open us up to our potential and those that keep us trapped in ignorance.

Why then do we not learn how to ask and answer questions?

Life could be different, for many of us life bloody well should be different. But the sad truth is if we want to change the system we first have to be the change we want to see. But here’s the conundrum: we can’t change if we don’t know we are broken and when we continue to be fed outdated information and ways of thinking at school we will remain trapped in ignorance and we will never see the solution to any problem.

Being a woman of life I can look back at my formative school years and say with a great deal of certainty that if I and my generation had been given even the slightest insight into any of the 3 topics below then maybe we would not have squandered the earth’s resources and ruined the planet for future generations.

So let’s dive into those 3 important subjects.

One: Learn how to ask and answer empowering questions.

Asking empowering questions is life-affirming and transformative. It’s also a skill that needs to be taught early on in life so that you can develop healthy habits that support personal growth.

The right question can take you from the pit of despair to the summit of a mountain.

Asking yourself better questions every day truly allows you to grow as a person and fulfill more of your potential. It helps you dump the victim mentality and instead connect with the infinite field of potential.

The most important questions we should be asking are ones that will help elevate us and the planet so questions such as, how can I serve? How can I make a difference?

Of course, we all have problems and we need to put on the oxygen mask first before helping others so it’s definitely going to be necessary to ask questions like how can I increase my income? How can I lose weight?

The important thing is that you encourage your brain to work in a different way. You want it to fire and create new neurons because you need and want better results.

Questions that use; How can I…… ? encourage the brain to find solutions and help to increase your potential as a human being.

Increasing your potential allows you to solve problems more efficiently with less drama and emotion so you get new, better results.

Two: Understand that you can shift your perspective.

The view from the summit is different from the view in the Valley.

This is a difficult concept to grasp but most people can understand that if you walk to the top of a hill or climb to the top of a tall building you can see things that weren’t visible at the bottom of the hill.

Your vision expands when you are at the top of the hill, you can see the bigger picture. When you are down in the valley your vision is limited and so is your thinking.

When you reach the summit of a mountain you can see life from an entirely different perspective.

You can look out at the beauty and splendor of the world, marvel at its majesty and glory, and see the opportunity and potential that lies before you, warmed by the glow of satisfaction as you look back at your road to the top.

You can languish in that sense of achievement safe in the knowledge that you have accomplished something truly praiseworthy, something extraordinary.

As you look down into the valley below you can look back on your journey safe in the knowledge that you have completed the first part of an epic adventure. An adventure that started months, maybe years beforehand from just a dream. A dream that pushed you to take action which started with physical and mental training.

You trained your body and prepared your mind as best you could to get them ready to face obstacles on your journey to the top of the summit. You became familiar with your equipment and studied how to get to the top. Then one day you were there at base camp ready to begin the climb to the summit.

It wasn’t easy, you faced hardship and dangers on the climb up. They were much greater and darker than you had ever imagined and you were tested beyond endurance.

So many times it became unbearable it was just too hard to keep going and your mind and body screamed for release from the torture and begged you to go back, but you didn’t. You pushed through the pain and discomfort and emerged from the pain barrier into the sweet spot of self-esteem.

In the real world we don’t all get to climb Mount Everest and to be honest I’m not sure I would want to but not all mountains are physical and in real life, you don’t have to go climb a mountain to get a shift in perspective or break through your comfort zone. All you need to do is become aware of a problem or habit that needs to be solved, this is your mountain.

Just the other day I had to wrestle with myself to demolish an old habit and when I did it was amazing.

I was working on the computer and a problem arose. I wasn’t sure what to do or how to handle it and it started to bother me.

Feeling a bit down, I messaged my friend and she invited me over to talk about it. I would normally accept such an offer but this time I felt it was not the right solution and a little saying popped into my head “If you always do what you always do you will always get what you always get” and so I asked myself an empowering question.

How can I solve this problem?

“Wait, just keep going.” Came the answer.

So I kept going.

It was excruciating. I wriggled about on my chair. I huffed and puffed and paced around the room. I literally got hot and bothered like I was exploding internally. In fact, I really got to understand the saying “hot under the collar”.

A short time passed. It felt like hours.

I got more frustrated.

Armies inside of me were getting ready to battle. There was a familiar army, they were screaming, “run away, go out with your friend, fight another day.”

And another unidentified army, gaining force hiding in the woods and gathering momentum.

I sat in my chair fidgeting and wriggling, suffering in exquisite unfamiliar agony. I recognized I was in the pain zone and I understood that if I could endure this discomfort just a little more if I could just hang on then I would enter new territory: the growth zone.

Whether I got an answer or not it didn’t matter as I would have forced a change and a change would lead to a different outcome. The instant I accepted this I began to feel more relaxed and happier and at that precise moment, I clicked on a link that led me to my answer, and in doing so it showed me 3 more things.

• Change is possible at any age or any time in your life.
• The universe will respond to your shifts in perspective
• The universe is always absolutely unfolding perfectly.

Three: You can only solve a problem by being bigger than the problem itself.

About 10 years ago I went to a training course run by T. Harv Eker. I clearly remember his lecture on problem-solving. It stuck with me mainly because it raised important questions to which up until this point in my life I never had an answer.

Think about your problems for a moment, on a scale of 1 to 10 when 1 is not too serious and 10 is a complete disaster. Where are they on the scale?

Let’s say they are a 9.

Now imagine someone like Elon Musk. What rating would he give your problems?

Would your problems be really small to him like a level 1?

If so you need to expand and grow yourself. If you were a level 4 person and you have a level 5 problem then you would need to grow yourself to a level 6 to solve the problem.

In other words, expand your knowledge and work on yourself to be bigger than your problem. This is very true and it comes back to Einstein,

“the world we have made as a result of the level of thinking we have done thus far creates problems that we cannot solve at the level of thinking at which we created them”

Unfortunately back then I didn’t know how to grow myself. Times have changed since then. I have also changed and now I do have the skills to grow myself. There are so many great books, courses, and teachers out there that make change possible and doable. One great book that I found very helpful was Breaking the habit of being yourself by Dr. Joe Dispenza.

I often find myself repeating what I have heard him say, brainwashing myself into a better version and I am happy to do this because little by little, inch by inch, I feel I am making progress.

As Rick Pinto says, “Change comes not by the yard but by the inch.”

There are two affiliate links included in this article to books I have found to be helpful.

Feel free to drop me a line or comment below.

I am open to collaboration and new projects.

Caryn Leach-Smith

Leading English coach, Mentor Trainer to Top Legal Professionals & Influential Lawyers Whose Second Language is English.