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Five questions that can change your life

There are five questions I suggest people ask themselves to steer their life in the right direction.

These are questions I’ve asked myself to bring about powerful change.

Questions are motivators: we can’t help but start working on an answer.

In fact, in studying copywriting, the writer is encouraged to phrase statements as questions– because people naturally want to know the answer! Humans are problem solvers at heart.

QUESTION ONE. “If you won the lottery and never had to worry about earning an income again, what would you do?”

This was a question asked of me by a career counselor many years ago. And the answer is a key to revealing what you should be doing with your life — even without winning the lottery.

There are many, many stories of people who won millions in the lottery and squandered it all on houses, cars, fast living and handouts to friends. I’m not going to go there, because if you’re reading this blog, you’re not the kind of person who would do that.

Hopefully, you would use the money to:

• live a healthy lifestyle,
• use your talents, and
• contribute to the greater good of the world.

In fact, Native American’s taught that hoarding money and being excessively rich is a form of mental illness!

And when you don’t win the lottery…

There’s a lot of benefit from earning the money you live on. Years ago I had a friend who told me about her friend Anne, who dreamed of being a screenwriter.

Every time my friend went over to Anne’s tiny apartment, it was stacked with screenplays she was working on.

Anne’s most earnest project was a story about “a little kid who wanted to be a big kid.”

Anne’s brother was a big-time producer and director and my friend asked her why he didn’t help her out. Anne replied it was because her brother believed everyone should make it on their own.

Eventually, Anne Spielberg sold that script about the little kid who wanted to be a big kid and won an academy award for it – it became the hit 1988 movie “Big” starring Tom Hanks.

And the brother who believed everyone should earn their success is Steven Spielberg.

My friend has never forgiven Steven Spielberg for not helping his sister, but I’m inclined to agree with him.

The satisfaction of earning your success with no undue influence is very sweet. Anne Spielberg made it, she earned it, and no one can ever take that away from her.

Perhaps that’s why so many lottery winners essentially lose their minds and their money; they know they didn’t earn it and there’s a subtle guilt factor going on.

QUESTION TWO. “When you were five years old, what did you want to be when you grew up?”

For most people, the answer to this question is the key to why we’re in a physical body and what gifts we’ve been given to use.

At five years old, we’re still very in touch with our spirits, and our soul knows why we’re here on planet earth.

It’s the adults who talk us out of following our dreams. But I say: forget being sensible. Follow your heart.

I have always felt drawn to people who are still in touch with that inner child and the things they truly love.

After I graduated with a college degree that gave me no practical job skills, my mother paid my tuition to attend paralegal school. [I later learned it was because she hoped I’d “marry a nice young lawyer.” Sorry, Mom].

When I started working in the legal profession, I briefly flirted with the idea of going to law school but ultimately decided against it.

The reason is that I couldn’t imagine any of the lawyers I worked with as having ever been five years old. They’d lost their inner child, their joy for living, their innocence.

The exception is the attorneys I worked with for 17 years at my last job. But many of them didn’t even want to be lawyers any more, so ……

QUESTION THREE. “What would you do if you knew you could not fail?”

We’ve all heard that question before. But do we just move on without thinking about it?

Stop, think, what would you do?

Then find a way to do it.

Start out small. If you want to start exercising or improving your diet, make one small change, one day a week and gradually increase until you get comfortable with it.

QUESTION FOUR. “What am I grateful for?”

Research shows that people who ask this question every day tend to be happier, more successful and more likely to achieve their goals.

QUESTION FIVE. Every night ask, “What good have I done today?”

You’re going to want to have an answer to this question. So if you don’t, hopefully you will start living each day so that you do have an answer.

The bookend to that practice is the Native American morning prayer from The Wind Is My Mother:

“Creator, please help me to walk worthily today, so that when I lay down at night, I will not be ashamed.”

Giving, loving, being passionate about what you’re doing. These are the things that make life worth living.

And the answers were in you all along.

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