Before I dive into today’s topic on the power of asking the right questions, I must thank you all for the love and encouragement you showered on me for the previous blog – Make workout and healthy eating a choice, not a punishment. I am glad you found it interesting and thought-provoking.

Now, that post was the result of a question asked by a listener and her question was “How do you keep motivating yourself to exercise and eating healthy?”

I use the hashtag life lessons for most of my posts and articles. These articles are mostly based on the lessons that I learn from incidents in life, experiences in life, and by reading and listening to others’ experiences in life. I feel we learn these lessons, apply them in our own lives, forget them, and then relearn them. This process continues all through our lives. A huge part of our learning process is about asking questions.

Today’s episode is about questions and the importance of asking the right questions. We have all learned very early in our childhood about the question words in different languages. Who, what, where, when, why, which, and how being commonly used question words in English.

Why are questions so important? To put it plainly, questions are important because they lead us to the answers.

“The important thing is to never stop questioning”, said Albert Einstein

One of the very famous quotes about questioning says, “Questioning enables us to organize our thinking around what we don’t know.”

Questions are at the root of innovation.

We know from our experiences with google searches that the moment our question has the right keywords, bingo, our answer just appears.

We are all blessed with a questioning mind. Now, the key here is to ask the right questions. When stuck in a situation, it is so easy for us to keep asking, why am I in this situation. Understanding the why will definitely help us learn our lessons, so we don’t make the same mistakes and end up in a similar situation again. But a lot of times we may not even have an answer to that question. At those times a better question to ask would be “ what can I do to get out of this situation? “ or “ How can I make the situation better?” These questions help us find answers that are more beneficial for us.

“In a world that is governed by shame and political correctness, people are not only not saying what is on their minds, they are also not asking what is on their minds too”. Says Tim Ferriss, the author of Tools of Titans. And those who dared to ask those questions made a whole world of difference to themselves and to the world around them.

The Upanishads are among the best-known philosophical-religious works in the world, which are among the oldest, as the earliest texts are thought to have been composed between 800-500 BCE. The beauty of these texts is that they are written in a dialogue format. There is a seeker asking questions and a knower or master giving out the answers. There is no better way to understand spirituality than by asking the basic underlying questions about life and death.

A young boy who lived in India in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century left his home in search of an answer to his question and that took him to the path of enlightenment and liberation. His simple yet profound question- ‘Who Am I’ paved the way for his journey to the ultimate goal of human life.

What is the purpose of my life?
How can I be of service to others?
Where can I find peace and happiness?
How can I get rid of suffering?

These are such important life questions. And when we start asking these questions, we get directed to the right path. Each one of us can take a different path depending on the question that we ask.

What is the purpose of my life is a question that often haunts me. What is your question?

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