Big Questions
Many of you, like me, are connoisseurs of questions. I’m always on the lookout for a new question I can apply in times when I’m having trouble making a decision or when I’m stuck on some problem I can’t figure out. I came across a business book recently, written by investment guru Ken Fisher, that had a few delicious new questions in it. In fact, the title of the book is The Three Questions That Matter Most. Although he focuses them on business and particularly investing, his questions could be applied to just about anything.
Here they are:
(1) What do you believe that is actually false?
(2) How can I fathom what others find unfathomable? And,
(3) What the heck is my brain doing to blindside me now?
Brilliant! Let me know what kind of breakthroughs you have by using them.
For many years I've collected world-class transformation-inducing questions. My collecting began somewhere in the late 60s or early 70s, when I was sitting in traffic in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass. I was stewing in some horrendous relationship drama at the time, a hundred-plus pounds overweight, stuck in traffic in a city I didn’t want to be in, in a car I didn’t like, with a person sitting beside me I couldn’t stand, when I suddenly noticed a bumper-sticker on the car sitting in front of me. It said: WHAT ARE YOU PRETENDING NOT TO KNOW? I asked myself that question, and I felt my world come to a standstill with a big realization. I had been using every kilowatt of energy I produced in a futile quest: pretending not to know I was dying. I was 25 years old and I felt like my time was running out.
Within a year I had shed the hundred pounds (and also the excess baggage of the relationship I’d been stuck in), moved to the west coast and created a new life. There were a lot of other powerful influences at the time, so I can’t attribute all this change to a question, but it sure helped get me moving.


Comments (2)
boy, i hate to see a great post like this get no action.
i'm just checking in to say i'm trying, Gay. i'm trying to keep those three questions in mind and see what i come up with. i'm starting to worry that it's just baaaarely beyond me.
Comment #1 Posted by: evan austin | January 21, 2007 06:25 AM
My favorite is from Thich Nhat Hanh...another version of Fisher's #3.
he simply asks: Are you sure?
It makes me laugh whenever I remember to ask myself, "Are you sure?" I often catch myself smack dab in the middle of a judgment, opinion, assumption, fear, justification, insecurity, or other mental trickery.
Comment #2 Posted by: Leslie Davis | January 25, 2007 09:59 PM