It’s straightforward and customary to settle into the consolation of desire and routine. On some stage, that is to be anticipated. Over time, we craft our lives round what we all know we like, from the espresso we drink and the exhibits we watch, to even the concepts and opinions we maintain expensive.
And the extra we try this, the better these patterns turn out to be to repeat.
This familiarity in life isn’t inherently dangerous. On some stage, it provides us a way of safety and id—it makes up the individuals we’re and the lives we dwell.
However there’s a hazard when consolation turns into complacency. There’s some extent the place “I do know what I like” can shut the door on development, new experiences, and even knowledge that others can provide us.
There’s a delicate line the place “I do know what I like” begins to remove from pleasure and even a probably extra significant existence.
In any respect phases of life, however possibly much more the older we get, we might be clever to focus much less on “I do know what I like” and extra on “What’s working for you?”
It’s silly, in fact, to imagine that we all know all issues and have all the things found out in life completely. So on some stage, this shift in considering that I’m encouraging as we speak is an invite to humility.
Nevertheless it’s not nearly the truth that regardless of our age, we will nonetheless study from others. It’s about actively pursuing that knowledge.
It’s about deliberately shifting away from “I do know what I like and I’m not going to vary” to “What’s working for you? And the way can I enhance life for myself and others by shifting towards it?”
Give it some thought this manner: Shifting from “I do know what I like” to “What’s working for you?” is a small change in wording however a big shift in mindset.
The query invitations a dialogue and opens us as much as study from the experiences and successes of others. It’s an acknowledgment that maybe there’s a unique, possibly even a greater manner, to strategy varied elements of life that we hadn’t thought-about earlier than.
We will see this in small methods. Questions like “What restaurant do you wish to eat at?,” “What motion pictures have you ever loved seeing?,” “What books are you studying?,” or “What hobbies are you at the moment having fun with?” can introduce us to new meals, new experiences, and new passions.
However the utility of this mindset goes nicely past leisure actions. It may well (and will) lengthen into extra profound areas of our lives.
We will ask our mates and folks we glance as much as questions like:
What’s working for you in your bodily well being?
What’s working for you in your private funds?
What’s working for you in your relationships?
What’s working for you in your profession?
Or think about the insights we might achieve by asking a good friend, “What’s working for you in managing stress?” or “What labored for you in restoring that damaged relationship?” These questions can uncover knowledge, recommendation, and methods we’d by no means have realized in any other case.
However to get there, we have to transfer past being content material with what we like and the way we’ve determined to dwell our lives. We have to purposefully want to study from others.
Adopting this lifestyle doesn’t simply profit us individually. For one, it sparks a tradition of sharing and group and deciding to study from each other slightly than argue with each other (and don’t all of us want extra of that nowadays). Once we dwell clever and intentional lives, everyone wins.
So let me encourage you as we speak. Assume much less “I do know what I like.” Ask extra “What’s working for you?”
And let’s all develop and be higher due to it.