A question you need never ask yourself

We’ve looked at the use of Intentional Questions in directing your awareness. Often there is a knee-jerk question that you will ask yourself as you consider whether to pursue a goal or not. Do you know the question? Let’s find out.

Picture yourself standing on the bank of a small stream. You are looking at the other bank. It occurs to you that it would be fun to jump over the stream to the other side. What question flashes through your mind as soon as you think about jumping over?

Asking this question doesn’t help you.

For many the most natural question is: Can I do it? Why doesn’t this help you? Because you don’t have any way of answering it. It doesn’t give you any information you can access. You are no further ahead for having asked it.

Some will argue that you can surely think about what you’ve been able to achieve in the past. For example you can think about how far you’ve been able to jump in previous attempts. That’s helpful, right? I say that you’ve changed the question. Now you’re asking, “What’s the furthest I’ve ever jumped?” And I agree. That is a useful question.

After you answer that one then what? Again you ask, “Can I do it? Now that I remember that I have jumped at least that far before, can I do it today?” And again I say, “How does that help you?” Is this making any sense or do you think I’m just being bothersome.

To swim the Channel.

Let’s say there is a fellow by the name of Larry (I’m making this up). Larry decides to swim the English Channel. He does it. He’s successful. No record is set but he’s still smiling. What an accomplishment!

Answer me this: Did Larry prove that he CAN swim the English Channel? It’s not a trick question. Just be very literal in your thinking.

Here is my answer: Larry did not prove that he can swim the English Channel, he only proved that he did (I use the word “only” with all due respect to fictional Larry). If he makes another attempt he may very well fail. Sure he did it before but can he do it again?

All I’m saying is the question of ability is not useful. If you’ve never done something you can’t know if you can. If you’ve done something before, even thousands of times, the next time is still completely new.

Ask useful questions.

Instead of trying to determine if you can do something ask Intentional Questions like these:

• What do I want?
• How can I do it? This is a different question.
• What needs to be done?
• What are the consequences of failing?
• What are the consequences of succeeding?
• What’s the worst that could happen? How will I deal with that?
• Is this important to me?
• How do I begin? What’s after that?

The above questions help you be aware of what is necessary to achieve your goal. Even this isn’t ideal. In the end only by acting on your awareness will you learn what it actually takes to reach your objective.

A final plea.

Strike forever more the question “Can I do it?” from your lexicon. Never again ponder your abilities. Know that if you want it you need only intend to achieve it. Whether you can or can’t is not for you to decide. You either will or you won’t. Take action to find out of what you are truly capable.