The Only Way to Have Breakthroughs: Ask Tough Questions
They say, “If you haven’t found the answer, you haven’t asked a good enough question yet, ” or in Tony Robbin’s words:
“Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.” — Tony Robbins
As my journaling and personal growth group began to evolve and grow, I gathered the number one question that we were all seeking answers to was ‘How to find your life purpose.’ I didn’t give it much thought when I provided it as a topic option in the feedback form, but I realised that this is such a huge topic, and thought where do we even begin?
At the same time, in the past weeks I’ve been exploring my values, boundaries and how certain things were not working in my life. The need for clarity and balance led me to identify my core values and being able to say no to things that were costing my peace. And I understood how important knowing our values are, they are a guiding compass to how we carry ourselves in our lives, and the opportunities we are seeking, and even helping us to make better decisions once we get clear on what’s truly important for us!
In our latest group discussion, we did this journaling exercise together: Exploring your values:
List 3 things that. Are most important to you right now.
What do you value? Why is it important to me?
What has to happen in order for me to feel/experience [value]? What small steps can I start taking?
How do you know when [value] is satisfied? Or how would you feel if your value was compromised?
And it was so enlightening to see how we all had common threads of seeking personal development, health and happiness but we all had our own approaches to viewing life and what’s important for us. The idea is not to immediately quit your job or do something radical, it is to start having the awareness of what you truly desire and start plotting the small incremental steps that you can take from right now.
I observed the expressions of the group while writing down and thinking about the questions, some looked like they really struggled but it is through these hard-facing questions that will bring the truth to us. One of the participants came up with the value of honesty, as much as it is honesty with others but also more importantly, being honest to the self. I dug deeper and she began to share about the misalignment she felt at work and started being aware that it’s time to change paths.
As humans, we are creatures of habit, it is easy to stay stuck in what is in your comfort zone but no longer serves you anymore. It is very important to take stock of where we are going from time to time and ask these questions that force us to be honest and uncover the insights we have for ourselves.
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