The Miracle of Disciplined Questions
Articles By Tim Baird
How Our Mind Works.
Human being are creatures of selective focus, we don't consciously register everything that exists and occurs in our environment but rather we register only that which we focus on.
Try this simple experiment that demonstrates this principle.
Start by looking around the room you are currently in, and remember everything in the room which is blue....
Don't cheat! Stop and look around..... (and only after you have done that, continue reading)
Now that you have looked around and remembered all the things in your room which are blue....
Without looking around the room again.... List everything in the room which is yellow.......
Did you notice anything yellow while you were looking for blue?
The yellow things are there all along, but because we selectively focusing on the blue, we don't notice the yellow.
Our mind works like this in all things. If we look for the reasons why something is bad, we see lots of reasons why it is bad, and not see all the reasons it is good.
We Choose Our own Reality
When we understand how our mind works selectively, we understand how the exactly same set of circumstances can be good for one person and bad for another, as it is not the circumstances, but rather how we choose to look at the circumstances that determines their positive or negative nature.
It is not what actually objectively occurs that matters, but rather how we choose to look at that occurrence!
The knowledge that we have the direct ability to change the nature of a situation by simply changing how we choose to view the situation is incredibly powerful.
Questions - A Practical Application
When we look at using this knowledge in a practical way, the question that arises is how can we practically and reliably focus our thinking as a means to changing how we interact with the world.
The quality of the answers we find in life is directly dependent on the quality of the questions we ask.
Take for an example early astronomers, why could none of these men calculate an accurate calendar? It was not because they were stupid, it was because they were asking a low quality question.
The question that the early astronomers were trying to answer was "How do the planets and sun revolve around the earth?" It wasn't until the quality of the question was improved to "How do the earth and other planets revolve around the sun?" that astronomers were able to arrive at a quality answer (ie an accurate calendar).
How does this apply to us? We choose the answers we get in our lives by choosing the questions we ask of ourselves. If we ask ourselves how we can get a good job, we won't be starting a business anytime soon... If we ask ourselves how we can create massive value in the marketplace and have fun doing it, we are well on the way to building a fortune!
Constant Reminders
It is very easy to get all excited by a new idea and practice it for a few days or weeks, and then get distracted by life and let go of the idea which if persisted with could have made a significant change to our life.
A good way of combating this tendency is to commence the habit of regular positive input. Set aside some time every day or two to read something inspirational or educational, listen to audio programs daily whilst driving or on the train.
By making sure you have some positive input every day to remind you to persist with your resolution to discipline the questions you ask yourself, you can make significant changes in your life by using the power of focus.
About the Author
A Veteran of the Afghanistan Campaign and Anti Piracy Operations in South East Asia, Tim is now a online entrepreneur and is actively involved providing life education and positive mentoring to youth in his local community. Copyright 2006 Tim Baird. For FREE success education and positive attitude resources visit http://www.timbaent.com/free
