Every year around the holidays, I get together with a group of friends that I respect.
This time is special because, although I see these friends individually throughout the year, we’re rarely all in the same room. This is a group that pushes me to grow. Each year, as a part of our time together, the host asks us to come prepared to answer a few questions.
The first question is one that Ralph Waldo Emerson was famous for greeting his friends with: “What has become clear to you since we last met?”
Emerson’s intent was an invitation and challenge to his friends and guests to assess the progress of their thinking.
As we prepare to launch into this new year, many of you are making resolutions and setting new goals. But one thing I’d challenge each of you to do this year is to ask the right questions. The right questions cause us to think differently, they change our perspective, and they just might change our lives.
Here are a few to consider:
- What do you value, and are you true to your values?
- What should you be doing that you aren’t doing right now?
- What do you wish you knew that you don’t know?
- When was the last time you set a big goal?
- What have you learned lately?
- If you weren’t afraid to fail, what would you try?
- If you knew you only had a certain number of days to live, what would you do differently?
- What fear, belief, or habit is limiting you from living like that today?
- How have you grown in character this year?
- Who could you count on if you really needed somebody?
I also love the question that Martin Luther King Jr. encouraged us to ask, when he said:
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is ‘What are you doing for others?’”
If you want different results in 2025, a good place to start is by asking the right questions.
