Five Questions That Everyone Must Ask

Finding Clarity and Purpose for Impact in the Time of Transition

The Value of Asking Questions

I attended a political event last week. Candidates for local, state, and national offices were present. With each candidate that I met, I asked them one question. “If elected, what is the greatest challenge you will face in the next four years.” It is a trick question because I know none of them really know. Politics, governance, and leadership are now mostly a reactive process. It is not much different than what we each experience.

I want you to know that I have no idea what the next four years hold. Except I do know that it will not be an easy time as a world war is risked, inflation destroys the world economy, and the coronavirus continues to devastate communities strain after strain.

Do you feel that you also don’t know what is coming?

Do you also not know what to do when you hear dire predictions of famine, economic collapse, and nuclear war?

We may have little control over what is happening on a global scale, but we can know how to respond personally. To do so, we need a simple discipline to provide us clarity of awareness and direction for our decisions. This is why the Five Questions that Everyone Must Ask were created.

Five Universally Applicable Questions

The following questions developed out of the realization that many people do not know how to solve problems much less ask the questions that help them solve problems. What do they do? Good question.

They avoid responsibility. They deflect responsibility onto other people. They emotionally crumble. They not only lose perspective, but lose any sense of who the are as a person. They believe what they see and do what they are told.

Now imagine, a family, a business, or a whole society that does not understand how to solve problems or ask questions. This is the world we live in. This is why these five questions can save them from a live of frustration and futility.

The Five Questions that Everyone Must Ask.

1. What has changed? How am I in transition?

2. What is my Impact?

3. Who am I Impacting?

4. What Opportunities do I have?

5. What Problems have I created? What Obstacles do I face?

Time

The questions are designed with time and context in mind.

The questions can be used to look back in time to analyze what has happened. This is the traditional use.

Looking back

We want to know what has changed; not change in an absolute sense of here today, gone tomorrow. But change as seen through a progression of transition points. When I am training groups to use the method, I tell them, “Try and pinpoint the moment when you first recognized that you were in transition.” From that moment on, we want to mark down what has transpired to bring us to this point.

The other four questions help to clarify what took place.

We see whether we had an impact or not.

We see who we impacted or who we needed to impact.

We see where our opportunities for impact are now.

We see where we need to change by facing our problems and the obstacles that confront us.

The questions help us to gain perspective about how we got where we are. Understanding how things transpired over time is where real wisdom for life is born.

Therefore, ask the questions at least once a week. Ask about the previous week. Then, ask about the coming week. Your perspective will be clearer as a result.

Looking forward

In looking forward, we are not only looking at some point in the future where we have accomplished some purpose. We are seeking to understand the steps that we need to take to get there.

The image that I have is of living in a big house. We live in one room at a time. When the transition point comes, a door opens. We walk through the door. We turn and pull the door closed behind us. Now we are in a new stage in the process moving toward our ultimate goal. So we ask questions all along the way.

What is the impact that you want in the future?

Who do we want to impact as a result?

With this clarity of purpose, we can then say,

“What changes do we need to create?

What does this transition to impact look like?

What problems will we have to solve and obstacles to overcome?”

You should be realizing at this point that the difference between the past and the future becomes less and less. By asking these questions, we remain in a state of present awareness. Philosophers would call this a state of being.

Becoming Aware, Right Now

We can also ask the five questions about the present moment.

What needs to change in our meeting today?

What is the impact that I want to create today?

What are the opportunities that we need to identify or create today?

What problems and obstacles do we need to deal with right now?

The time dimension of the questions helps us to form in our minds a sense of purpose expressed through time. We can see our lives taking place in four timeframes. Each serves a particular purpose.

The Four Timeframes

The past is a time for learning.

The present is a time for taking initiative.

The future is a time for impact.

Our legacy is a time of honor for the impact that we have had on people’s lives.

Context

The five questions can be asked in a range of contexts.

Asking the five questions in preparation for a meeting.

• What do I want the impact of our weekly meeting to be?

• What has changed since our last meeting?

• Who beyond our team should we focus on as the object of impact during our meeting

• What problems have arisen since we last met?

• How have those problems developed?

They can be asked in the context of planning for projects, new business ventures, a family vacation, or even retirement.

They can be asked in the context of staff evaluations.

• Over the past year, how has your impact changed?

• Who are you impacting now that you were not a year ago?

• What opportunities emerged during the past year?

These questions get at the actual change that has taken place.

Personal Context

More importantly, the personal context is where these five questions prove their worth. At moments of important decisions, we need clarity about how we came to this moment of decision.

What should be the impact of this decision?

How it will affect the people who matter to us?

What stands in the way of my implementing this decision?

Am I am prepared to make this transition?

Does the opportunity lead to a greater impact?

My own use of the five questions has made it possible to make major decisions with a clear mind and purposeful intention. I wish everyone that I know could have that same experience.

Instead of living in fear of the unknown, the five questions clear away the clouds of doubt. Ask them to determine if the moment is “momentous” or not.

Ask them often enough, and you’ll find that you are automatically thinking in terms of transition and impact.

Transition and Impact

“How am I in transition?” and “What is my impact?” I have found these two questions to be the key ones for our time. In the past, we could settle for a life of regularity doing the same thing day after day. Today, when everything in our world is in upheaval, it is vital that we look at our lives differently. Transition and impact are the keys to this new life.

We are all in transition.

We notice it now because the pace and intensity of change are increasing. It breeds fear, confusion, and exhaustion. We are constantly trying to figure out where we fit in the social complexity of our time. It is easy to feel lost as if we are caught up in a tsunami of change being tossed around without reason or purpose. It is understandable if we feel like we have lost control. By asking the five questions, we gain control, focus, and direction through the conflicts that assail us.

Seeing our potential impact is a tangible way to mitigate the challenge of change. The clearer we are about our impact, the simpler our lives can become. We don’t have to wrestle with all the decisions that come at us. When we know the impact we want to have we gain clarity about the values that we want to define our lives.

How To Start

Step One

Take a topic where you need some clarity for either a decision or to gain perspective.

Take no more than five minutes to ask the five questions. The quicker the better.

Write something down for each question. Now, put it aside.

A day later return to the questions. Spend 20-30 minutes answering the questions.

What you will find is that the original quick review initiated a thought process that has continued subconsciously.

Now, write down your response identifying the actions that you need to take.

Step Two

Take time every week to answer the five questions. Be disciplined about it. It will transform your perspective of what is taking place in your life and the world.

If you have questions about this process, post them in the comments.