Grow Your Business

You have to admit that "problems" and "the entrepreneur" share a very special relationship. On one hand, just about every successful business venture originally started out as a "solution" to a problem. On the other hand, having too many problems coming up in your day to day operations isn't exactly the best way to achieve life balance.

Most people use one of three ways to deal with problems:

 

1. The first is by feeling negative emotions, and then implementing actions in reaction to their emotions.
2. The second is by ignoring the problem and hoping it gets resolved by itself.
3. And the third is by re-focusing on what's important (to their business or life direction), and then coming up with solutions that are aligned with those goals.

 

It takes a lot of awareness and practice to deal with problems using the third method, which is the best way to manage problems. But you can start training yourself to do this right now by practicing a very simple technique.

 

Choose better questions, generate better solutions.
What I'm about to tell you now may sound extremely simple, but if you REALLY try applying this principle to your life, you would recognize how powerful this truth is:

 

Questions are the key to unlocking your mind's creative problem solving power.

ALL our thoughts are simply responses to our default "inner questions." Imagine two different people waiting in a cafe, both preparing for their respective business meetings. Imagine both of them spilling their drinks on their best suits at the same time. One of them sees the mess and thinks: "I'm so stupid!"

The other one sees the mess and thinks: "Oh well, I'll just wash it off."

Two different reactions to the same situation. Apart from the roles of "attitude" and "personality" to the situation, their reactions were also caused by having different automatic questions.

Person A's automatic question was probably: Why does this always happen to me? And his mind readily supplied an answer: "Because I'm so stupid!"

Person B's automatic question was probably: Does this really matter? And his mind supplied him with another answer: "Not so much, so I'll just wash it off."

In short: Our automatic questions determine our thoughts. If you learn to choose the right questions, you will train your mind to produce better thoughts as well as solutions!

15 best questions you can train your mind to ask
When you start becoming aware that your automatic questions practically direct the way you live your life, you'll want to feed your mind better questions. And even when you find yourself reverting back to old automatic (and not very useful) thoughts, all you have to do is pause and feed yourself a more useful question.

Here are 15 of the most useful questions an entrepreneur can feed his/her mind. Regularly using them ? and consciously asking yourself these questions at critical times ? will help you maximize your brain power. Pretty soon, your mind will be coming up with amazing solutions every day, instead of wasting energy on anxiety and worry.

Try to use these powerful questions today:

3 questions when you need to decide if a problem is urgent
If I don't solve this now, what will be its impact on my business / life / relationships in the next:
o 5 days?
o 5 months?
o 5 years?

3 questions when you need to decide if your solution is the best one you have right now
If I implement my solution now, how will this impact my business / life / relationships in the next:
o 5 days?
o 5 months?
o 5 years?

4 questions when you're overwhelmed by worry because of a problem

o How is this problem absolutely perfect for me right now?

o What valuable lessons is this problem teaching me?

o What's the worst thing that could happen if I cannot manage this problem right now?

o What is my plan of action for surviving/dealing with this worst case scenario?

5 questions when you're not sure about the next step
o What do I already know about this?
o What else do I need to find out?
o What 3 next steps can I do that I?d be at peace with?
o Who has done this before, and how can I quickly learn from him/her?
o How can I delegate this to someone who?d better know what to do?

Now ask yourself: When will you start maximizing your mind's power today?

Aileen Santos is an internationally certified Work-Life ReInvention Coach & A-Ha! Trainer who helps overwhelmed leaders and entrepreneurs achieve balance and success in the things that truly matter.

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