The Quality Of Your Life Is Determined By The Quality Of The Questions You Ask

Do you find yourself repeating the same behaviour or feeling trapped? A lot of the time this is due to the questions we ask ourselves which limit the choices open to us. The advice is simple, change the questions you ask yourself and your attitude, the choices open to you, how you feel about yourself and the direction of your life will all change for the better. Here Pinky Jangra talks about some of these points:


The Quality Of Your Life Is Determined By The Quality Of The Questions You Ask




This title is a well known statement in the personal development industry. It may not seem particularly profound at first glance, but it’s BIG when you wrap your head around it. We are always asking questions, sometimes of others and very often of ourselves. These questions have a huge impact on our lives because:

Questions lead to answers. Answers generate emotions and drive behaviour. Behaviour determines results.

Frequently, this whole process from question to results involves just us. Here’s an example of a common, poor quality question that we ask ourselves, answer ourselves and the rest follows suit:

Poor Question to self: Why is my job so rubbish?

Answer to self: It’s boring.

Emotion and behaviour: I feel stuck, uninspired and drained. I’ll make myself feel better by doing something fun this weekend.

Result: I still have to go back to the same job on Monday.

Poor quality questions

A poor quality question delivers poor quality answers. Such answers create disempowering emotions. From there, we are likely to act out less helpful behaviours and achieve poor results.
So let’s flip this example with some quality questions – the more we ask the better:

Quality question 1: Would I prefer to find a way of enjoying this job, or get a new job?

Answer: I’d like a new job

Quality question 2: What am I both good at and enjoy doing, which I’d love to get paid for?

Answer: I’m good at and would like to work in […]

Quality question 3: What action can I take towards getting work in that industry?

Answer: I can start by freelancing on the side, I could partner with someone more experienced, I could join specialist recruitment sites, look for jobs within my own company, pull on my network for advice and contacts and take some courses.

Emotions and behaviour: I can see how this is possible, I have six ways to start this journey to a better career. I feel a sense of control, inspiration, clarity and excitement. I’ll start by looking for specialist recruiters and signing up for a course.

Results: I am now two steps closer to getting a job I really want.

A quality question empowers you to generate quality results

This process is applicable for any areas of life. How often do you hear people who want to be in a relationship saying ‘why are there no decent girls/ guys out there?’, resigning themselves to the answer ‘they are all taken’ and then wondering why they are still single?!

What if they were to ask: what do I want in a partner? Where are those sorts of people to be found? How can I meet them? What can I do to make myself a good match for someone like that?

Don’t forget to take action

Disempowering emotions don’t promote action, they promote avoidance. Quality questions generate empowering emotions which drive action. But you must TAKE the action.

More examples of quality questions

· How can I learn from this?

· How have other people succeeded?

· How can I break this down into manageable chunks?

· Who can I learn from or ask for advice?

· Where is the opportunity in this tough situation?

· How does this serve me?

· How is staying in my current situation a disservice to me?

· What will be the benefits of change?

The list sure goes on!

You can use the template of Question, Answer, Emotion, Behaviour and Result, to ask yourself more quality questions and explore the results that you would achieve. You could also use it to understand more about how poor quality questions are delivering you poor results.

So, what sort of quality questions would you like to ask in your life?

Pinky Jangra: http://www.thepositivepsychologypeople.com/quality-life-determined-quality-questions-ask/

How to learn anything deeper and faster - The Feynman Technique

Do you have trouble learning and remember things. Would you like to improve how you learn and  how you remember. Well have a read of  this article from Shane Parish talking about the  Feynman Technique and then you'll find your ability to learn will skyrocket!

The Secret Algorithm Behind Learning

I wasn’t always a good learner. I thought learning was all about the hours you put in. Then I discovered something that changed my life.

The famous Nobel winning physicist Richard Feynman understood the difference between “knowing something” and “knowing the name of something” and it’s one of the most important reasons for his success.

Feynman stumbled upon a formula for learning that ensured he understood something better than everyone else.

It’s called the Feynman Technique and it will help you learn anything deeper, and faster. The topic, subject, or concept you want to learn doesn’t matter. Pick anything. The Feynman Technique works for everything. Best of all, it’s incredibly simple to implement.

The catch: It’s ridiculously humbling.

Not only is this a wonderful method of learning but it’s also a window into a different way of thinking. Let me explain

There are four steps to the Feynman Technique.

Step 1: Teach it to a child

Take out a blank sheet of paper and write the subject you want to learn at the top. Write out what you know about the subject as if you were teaching it to a child. Not your smart adult friend but rather an 8-year-old who has just enough vocabulary and attention span to understand basic concepts and relationships.

A lot of people tend to use complicated vocabulary and jargon to mask when they don’t understand something. The problem is we only fool ourselves because we don’t know that we don’t understand. In addition, using jargon conceals our misunderstanding from those around us.

When you write out an idea from start to finish in simple language that a child can understand (tip: use only the most common words), you force yourself to understand the concept at a deeper level and simplify relationships and connections between ideas. If you struggle, you have a clear understanding of where you have some gaps. That tension is good –it heralds an opportunity to learn.

Step 2: Review

In step one, you will inevitably encounter gaps in your knowledge where you’re forgetting something important, are not able to explain it, or simply have trouble connecting an important concept.

This is invaluable feedback because you’ve discovered the edge of your knowledge. Competence is knowing the limit of your abilities, and you’ve just identified one!

This is where the learning starts. Now you know where you got stuck, go back to the source material and re-learn it until you can explain it in basic terms.

Identifying the boundaries of your understanding also limits the mistakes you’re liable to make and increases your chance of success when applying knowledge.

Step 3: Organize and Simplify

Now you have a set of hand-crafted notes. Review them to make sure you didn’t mistakenly borrow any of the jargon from the source material. Organize them into a simple story that flows.

Read them out loud. If the explanation isn’t simple or sounds confusing that’s a good indication that your understanding in that area still needs some work.

Step 4 (optional): Transmit

If you really want to be sure of your understanding, run it past someone (ideally who knows little of the subject –or find that 8-year-old!). The ultimate test of your knowledge is your capacity to convey it to another.



Feynman’s approach intuitively believes that intelligence is a process of growth, which dovetails nicely with the work of Carol Dweck, who beautifully describes the difference between a fixed and growth mindset 

Shane Parrish: https://medium.com/personal-growth/the-secret-algorithm-behind-learning-7c6f4eb702df

Be inspired - Here's 30 of Albert Einstein's most inspiring quotes to power you to success

Here's a great article from Goalcast on Albert Einstein and some of his top inspiring quotes.
He imagined what it would be like to ride on a beam of light and from that image, he was inspired to create his theory of relativity. So have a read of some of these quotes and then think how they can help you to reach your goals and success! Good luck!

Albert Einstein is the most influential physicist of the 20th century, and just might be the most famous scientist to have ever lived. He was only 26 when in 1905, he had four separate papers published, electrifying the field of physics and rocketing him to global renown. Among them were his ground-breaking special theory of relativity, as well as his famous equation, E = mc², which asserted that matter could be turned into energy. Not since Isaac Newton had one man so drastically altered our understanding of how the universe works.

Yet while Einstein clearly had a knack for science and mathematics from an early age, he did not excel at everything he put his mind to. He went to elementary school and later grammar school in Munich, where he felt alienated and stifled by the school’s rigid pedagogical approach. He was an average pupil, and experienced speech challenges, which permanently influenced his view of education and human potential.

It was largely in his private time, in fact, that Einstein’s passion and inquisitiveness for science and mathematics first flourished. And after finishing his studies in Zurich in 1900, it was again in his leisure time, while working at the Swiss Patent Office as a young adult, that he developed many of his most influential theories.

Albert Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921, but history would soon intervene. The Nazis were on the rise in his native Germany, and the Jewish-born Einstein was targeted for assassination. He moved to the United States in 1933, and worked at Princeton University in New Jersey for the rest of his days. There he became a central figure in the fight to curtail the use of the atom bomb, and a strong voice against racism and nationalism.

Einstein’s name has become synonymous with genius and creativity. Named Person of the Century by TIME in 1999, Einstein is a rare icon, whose wisdom extended far beyond the realm of science to reveal a man with an almost childlike sense of wonder and a profound love of humanity.

Here are our top 30 Albert Einstein quotes to unleash your inner genius.

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.

I am by heritage a Jew, by citizenship a Swiss, and by makeup a human being, and only a human being, without any special attachment to any state or national entity whatsoever.

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.

Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.

All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex… It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.

A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.

A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?

A human being is part of a whole called by us the universe.

The important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.

A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?

Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.

Concern for man and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

 All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.

Once you stop learning, you start dying.

It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.

Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.

He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.

Goalcast: https://www.goalcast.com/2017/03/29/top-30-most-inspiring-albert-einstein-quotes/

Why are you trying so hard to fit in, when you were born to stand out?

This is a great lesson for us all to not follow the crowd and do what you believe in and do what you think is right.

The Asch conformity experiments were a series of studies published in the 1950s that demonstrated the power of conformity in groups. These are also known as the "Asch Paradigm".

A lot of times you think everyone else is doing something different so you think they must be right -who am I to disagree? Sometimes we go with a group because they convince us their information is correct (Informational conformity) , sometimes we conform because we are apprehensive that the group will disapprove if we disagree (normative conformity). But we should always stand by our judgement and belief, as Mark Twain said:


Whenever I find myself on the side of the majority, it is time to stop and think.....Mark Twain


However most of the advances in human development have come from individuals with vision. This is a statement that George Bernard Shaw summarized eloquently:

Reasonable men try and change themselves to the world, unreasonable men try and change the world to themselves. That is why all progress depends on unreasonable men.......George Bernard Shaw

So believe in yourself and stay true to your values!

Ikigai - The Secret To A Long And Happy Life

Do you have a fulfilling life? If not check out this great article by Thomas Oppong talking about a Japanese concept to have a happy life.

Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life Might Just Help You Live a More Fulfilling Life

In Japan, millions of people have ikigai (pronounced Ick-ee-guy)— a reason to jump out of bed each morning.

What’s your reason for getting up in the morning?

The Japanese island of Okinawa, where ikigai has its origins, is said to be home to the largest population of centenarians in the world.

Could the concept of ikigai contribute to longevity?

Dan Buettner, author of Blue Zones: Lessons on Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest, believes it does.

According to Buettner, the concept of ikigai is not exclusive to Okinawans: “there might not be a word for it but in all four blue zones such as Sardinia and Nicoya Peninsula, the same concept exists among people living long lives.”

Buettner suggests making three lists: your values, things you like to do, and things you are good at. The cross section of the three lists is your ikigai.

Studies show that losing one’s purpose can have a detrimental effect.

American mythologist and author Joseph Campbell once said, “My general formula for my students is “Follow your bliss.” Find where it is, and don’t be afraid to follow it.”

“Your ikigai is at the intersection of what you are good at and what you love doing,” says Hector Garcia, the co-author of Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life. He writes,“Just as humans have lusted after objects and money since the dawn of time, other humans have felt dissatisfaction at the relentless pursuit of money and fame and have instead focused on something bigger than their own material wealth. This has over the years been described using many different words and practices, but always hearkening back to the central core of meaningfulness in life.”



ikigai is seen as the convergence of four primary elements:

· What you love (your passion)

· What the world needs (your mission)

· What you are good at (your vocation)

· What you can get paid for (your profession)

Discovering your own ikigai is said to bring fulfilment, happiness and make you live longer.

Want to find your Ikigai? Ask yourself the following four questions:

1. What do I love?

2. What am I good at?

3. What can I be paid for now — or something that could transform into my future hustle?

4. What does the world need?

In their book Ikigai The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life, Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles break down the ten rules that can help anyone find their own ikigai.

1. Stay active and don’t retire

2. Leave urgency behind and adopt a slower pace of life

3. Only eat until you are 80 per cent full

4. Surround yourself with good friends

5. Get in shape through daily, gentle exercise

6. Smile and acknowledge people around you

7. Reconnect with nature

8. Give thanks to anything that brightens our day and makes us feel alive.

9. Live in the moment

10. Follow your ikigai

What you deeply care about can unlock your ikigai

Follow your curiosity.

Philosopher and civil rights leader Howard W Thurman said, “Ask what makes you come alive and go do it.” … “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

The problem for millions of people is that they stop being curious about new experiences as they assume responsiblities and build routines.

Their sense of wonder starts to escape them.

But you can change that, especially if you are still looking for meaning and fulfilment in what you do daily.

Albert Einstein encourages us to pursue our curiosities. He once said:

“Don’t think about why you question, simply don’t stop questioning. Don’t worry about what you can’t answer, and don’t try to explain what you can’t know. Curiosity is its own reason. Aren’t you in awe when you contemplate the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure behind reality? And this is the miracle of the human mind — to use its constructions, concepts, and formulas as tools to explain what man sees, feels and touches. Try to comprehend a little more each day. Have holy curiosity.”

A classic example is Steve Jobs’ curiosity for typefaces which led him to attend a seemingly useless class on typography and to develop his design sensibility.

Later, this sensibility became an essential part of Apple computers and Apple’s core differentiator in the market.

We are born curious. Our insatiable drive to learn, invent, explore, and study deserves to have the same status as every other drive in our lives.

Fulfilment is fast becoming the main priority for most of us. Millions of people still struggle to find what they are meant to do. What excites them. What makes them lose the sense of time. What brings out the best in them.

“Our intuition and curiosity are very powerful internal compasses to help us connect with our ikigai,” Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles write.

What is the one simple thing you could do or be today that would be an expression of your ikigai?

Find it and pursue it with all you have, anything less is not worth your limited time on planet earth.

Thomas Oppong: https://journal.thriveglobal.com/ikigai-the-japanese-secret-to-a-long-and-happy-life-might-just-help-you-live-a-more-fulfilling-9871d01992b7

IF - HOW TO HAVE EVERYTHING

Would you like to have the Earth and everything that's in  it? Here is the ultimate guide for success!

    This is an amazing poem. "If—" is a poem by British Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling,  The poem, first published in Rewards and  Fairies (1910), is written in the form of paternal advice to the poet's son, John

If you can keep your head when all about you
 Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
 But make allowance for their doubting too.
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
 Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
 And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
 If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster,
 And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
 Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
 And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make a heap of all your winnings
 And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
 And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
 To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
 Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
 Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
 If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
 With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
 And—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son!

CORNELL NOTES

Do you have problems taking good notes? Do you look back at what you have learnt and have no clue what you've written? This could be the solution you've been looking for - Cornell Notes

D ivide the paper into three sections. Draw a dark horizontal line about 5 or 6 lines from the bottom. Use a heavy magic marker to draw the line so that it is clear. Draw a dark vertical line about 2 inches from the left side of the paper from the top to the horizontal line.
D ocument Write course name, date, and topic at the top of each page.
W rite notes. The large box to the right is for writing notes.  Skip a line between ideas and topics. Don't use complete sentences. Use abbreviations, whenever possible. Develop a shorthand of your own, such as using "&" for the word "and".

R eview and clarify. Review the notes as soon as possible after class. Pull out main ideas, key points, dates, and people, and write these in the left column.

S ummarize. Write a summary of the main ideas in the bottom section.
S tudy your notes. Re-read your notes in the right column. Spend most of your time studying the ideas in the left column and the summary at the bottom. These are the most important ideas and will probably include most of the information that you will be tested on.

James Madison university: http://coe.jmu.edu/learningtoolbox/cornellnotes.html