Questioning is a crucial skill. People who question processes, policies, rules, established structures, norms, surface facts, or other facets of the way we live are not merely wasting time or pushing back.
Questioners perform a valuable and essential service in the world:
They illuminate places where complacency has set in and where circumstances are ripe for change.
In this lies another reason why many people resist questioners:
Skillful questioning of the status quo often leads to change. And people don’t like change.
The status quo is comfortable, even when it’s painful.
It’s understandable that we might resist techniques that will inevitably lead us to change.
Although we would prefer to rest in the well-worn grooves of our habits, the comfort of complacency is a false comfort. Our unwillingness to ask questions will ultimately lead to greater pain because it will keep us stuck in ways of living that are out of alignment with our core values.
Moments like we are in now, when the world feels upside down, are potent times for questioning everything.
As much as questions lead to change, times of change provide potent opportunities for questioning.
Our assumptions, beliefs, and expectations. Policies, processes, and rules. Mental models. The path forward. Where we are going. How we are getting there. What do we value. What’s most important. What really matters.
These questions are relevant in the context of the broader cultural issues we are facing, and they also relevant to the specifics of your life.
Your life reflects, and is reflected in, the world around you. Inner reflects the outer, and the outer is reflected in the inner.
There has never been a better time to question everything.
Love it? Hate it? What do you think? Don't hold back...