7 Questions to Ask Yourself That Will Change Your Life when the Seasons Change
Variety is one reason I enjoy Pennsylvania. We have four seasons.
Transitioning from one season to the next is opportunity to ask questions that change life.
Questions to ask yourself that will change your life:
#1. How much does real life reflect preferred life?
Describe your life with brutal honesty.
If things are the same in the next season, how satisfied will you be?
#2. What choices/behaviors created your current life?
You navigated to this point. Own it.
Nothing good comes from blaming others or circumstances for a dissatisfying life.
#3. Where would I like to be three months from now?
Year-long goals help set direction, but don’t provide daily vitality.
Design behaviors based on 30-day goals.
#4. What behaviors will contribute to progress?
It’s easy to set goals. It even feels like you got something done, but the important work lies ahead.
Distill decisions into behaviors.
Goals are fantasies until they distill into daily behaviors.
The urgency illusion controls you until you embrace behaviors that reflect goals. The busier you feel, the more likely you are to neglect important work.
#5. What new behaviors will hasten progress?
Try something new when the seasons change. The present reflects the past when you don’t change today.
Reject behaviors that don’t move you forward.
Embrace past behaviors that improved trajectory.
#6. How could you use time to create your preferred life?
3 questions about time:
- What’s on your calendar that shouldn’t be?
- What ‘good things’ are keeping you from ‘great things’?
- What are you doing that someone else could/should do?
#7. Who might help you move forward?
The people you spend time with impact the trajectory of your life.
Questions are beginnings.
Ask, reflect, adapt, and explore.
Imagine this season is over and you’re proud of your progress. What did you do to get there?
Still curious:
Questions Proactive People Ask
Self-Reflection Questions for Introspection
Awesome post today! Thanks, I needed the reminder to reflect.
Thanks Tim. It’s useful on occasion to get out of the weeds and look around. I find my coaching clients are reenergized when I give them an opportunity to lift up their heads.
“Goals are fantasies until they distill into daily behaviors.”
That statement reminded me of a couple of other favorite quotes: “Vision without action is hallucination,” and “Good is the enemy of great.” In every season of work (and life, I’m now 68) I have had to keep these concepts in the forefront of my thoughts and actions. Facing serious health issues post-retirement in recent years, including fifteen months in a wheelchair then relearning how to walk while recovering from extensive nerve damage, undergoing cardiac surgery at age 66, and surviving two bouts with COVID, I had been focused primarily on basic health and physical survival. Within the past year, I have once again started setting goals, getting back to work in criminal justice training and consulting on a small scale, becoming active again in my church, helping homeschool my grandsons, and making my family and community better prepared for the perilous times that now loom before us.
“Ask, reflect, adapt, and explore.”
Indeed!
Jim, thank you for sharing some of your story. I’m glad you are on the upswing. It feels good to rise above survival mode. I admire your stamina and your example of turning outward. It seems that life invites us to sink inward.
Your comment is an inspiration. I wish you well.
Today, the question “What are you doing that someone else could/should do?” really resonated with me. A lot of my colleagues are comfortable asking me questions that would be better addressed by someone else. I am teaching myself that it is okay to refer the person asking the question to that someone else. It’s hard. If someone asks me a question, I really want to give them an answer. Even if I know the answer, though, I am trying to direct them to the person whose job it is to know that information. It’s a work in progress. Perhaps by the next change of season?
Thanks Jennifer. It’s always a work in progress. We are always beginning again and never fully arriving. Thank you for your candor. Here’s to the pursuit.
This was highly inspirational to me. Thank you for sharing your insight and wisdom. #theaffluentman
Thank you, Anthony. We have the ability to bring vitality to others with our words. You encourage me.
In the words of The Prisoner “Questions are a burden to others; answers are a prison for oneself”.
Thanks, Mitch. I’d ask what brought that quote to mind, but I don’t want to add a burden or create a prison.