Questions Are The Answers
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” — Matt 7:7
Ask the right questions to take action and turn knowledge into power.
Earlier this year (2020), during a visit to my parents in Freetown, we were reminiscing about my childhood. “The pastor is here, sir” is my parents’ favourite story. During our final year play at Kindergarten, the teachers could not find a part for me because I was too shy. But somehow my mum convinced the teacher to allow me to do the barest stage time possible. “Ok, Dunstan. All you have to do is get on stage to announce the arrival of the pastor.” I came out, shaking like a leaf, and muttered: “the… the pastor is here, sir.” Mum, said I took off for the backstage as if my life depended on it. But the story that cracked everyone up the most in the room was the one about my inquisitiveness.
“Boy, our friends would run away from you and your barrage of questions,” Mama recalled. Frustrated from losing several rounds of a board game to a family friend, I asked him; “do you think you are clever than God?” Dad reminded me that my nickname was the question master. My questions ranged from the thought-provoking to the ridiculous. “Why can’t we touch the sky? Where does the sun go in the evening? If God made us, then who made God?”
Well, I have not stopped being curious. And through this, I have learnt that the best way to learn is to ask questions.
“Questions, in fact, are the answer.” — Jim Kwik (from his book, Limitless)
But questions in themselves are not enough unless we are willing, ready and able to take action on the answers we get. I picked up Jim Kwik’s book in search of the answer to this question — How can I learn better and faster? Jim proposes the following three questions as part of the learning journey. When we come across new information or knowledge, we must ask the following questions:
“How can I use this?”
“Why must I use this?”
“When will I use this?”
And these are the questions that I set out to answer when I posted a survey on Facebook using “sogosurvery.” I wanted to find out what career questions and challenges the respondents have that I can help them with through my, close to, 25 years of experience working in seven countries.
I will like to say thank you to all those who took time out to respond to the survey. The responses have given great insights that will help me to fulfil one of my life goals.
How can I use the survey responses? I will use the answers to narrow down on the topic for my first book, which I will complete in June 2020.
Why must I use the responses? I want my book to help my readers address the most challenging questions that they are facing in their careers.
When will I use the insights that I received? I will use it now and throughout the writing of my book.
If you like to receive a chapter from my book for free and also get an email notification when I publish the book, please drop your email at the end of the survey in the link below.
Also, to find out more about how to use questions to unlock doors to best self, please read my post in the link below.
