Are you a done with yourself or are you continuing to discover more
about yourself, seek personal growth and development?

You see it all around how science keeps going, discovering more and more
about the world and universe we exist in. As technology improves, which
is change, science is able to understand more about our universe plus
obtain more ways to describe it all. For example, this picture of a
supernova remnant was not possible just a few years ago even though the
object was there.

This is how life is, ever expanding in its awareness of itself. Plus,
the increasing awareness of humans to what is already there. Much of the
change seems to not exist or that the change is very slow, but it is
there. Everything in the universe grows and changes we are certainly not
excluded. We have the ability to continue to change and grow throughout
our entire life, including our final change here, death.

But at the same time there are so many people who are ‘checking out’ so
early. Getting tired, feeling aches and pain, feeling beat down -
telling themselves they are wearing out -that it’s too late. I’m not
trying to tell you that pains should be ignored, but how you look at
them can have a huge affect on the power they play in your life.

The biggest factor to your growth is your thinking. What you think about
your life and your growth determines what you see, feel and do. If you
see possibilities - you will see them, and if you see the ‘end’ in your
mind, you will see it in your life. If you think you are too tired, sick
or whatever - you are.

Time to check yourself:

· How are you the same today as you were 10 years ago?
· How are you different?
· What are you doing that you thought were not possible for you a few
years ago?
· Do you look at things in the same way you did several years ago?
· Do you see possibilities for your life or feel hopeless?
· Do you feel that your life continues to move on or do you feel stuck?
· Are you open to new ideas and concepts or do you want to keep things
the way they are?
· Do you feel your problems hold you back, sap your energy and nix your
motivation?
· Are your dreams alive or have you given up on what you want in your
life?

Can you change any of this? Well yes you can - much of it. Many times we
let one thing affect all of our life. We allow our attitude and outlook
to be clouded when one thing has happened when we don’t need to.
Certainly there are situations where something may temporarily set you
back but it does not need to be for all time. Only you can determine if
you are temporarily off or if it has been too long. You will need to ask
yourself honest straight questions about it. The easy answer is of
course, “I will just suffer a little longer” but maybe not the best!

The truth is that a broken foot does not come with a bad attitude,
that’s our choice. A marital separation does not come with resentment
that carries through all of your life, that’s our choice. Because
something did not work out for us does not mean nothing ever will,
that’s our choice to think so. The thing to be careful for is that when
something that appears negative happens don’t allow it to affect all of
your life any more than is necessary.

Ask yourself some key questions that help enhance your self awareness so
you discover how you think and feel about everything. There is always
more out there for you if you allow it and if you are open to recognize
it. When you are clouded by negative reactions it may not seem so, but
you can always change and grow. Your outlook on life is a choice -
yours. You are never done, unless you choose.

John Halderman - More on daily life actions to support a better life,
http://www.effectivepersonaldevelopmentblog.com

Asking yourself questions is one of the best ways to get an answer.

Well, yes - that statement is obvious - but do you really get it?

Follow me here a minute - -

How many times do you let something undesirable continue to go on and on?

Why is this?

Part of the reason is that you may allow yourself to stew over something and replay the distasteful aspects over and over.

This mental activity does not support doing anything productive to find a solution or termination of the situation.

It actually just perpetuates or even enhances it.

I’ll bet you can easily think about some situations where you.

So, think again about situations where you have moved through into a solution or beneficial outcome.

What did you do to get to this point?

You asked yourself questions - didn’t you.

This may still seem too basic to you - what is he getting at?

OK, you move on with some change by asking yourself a question.

Why did this happen?

Who did this?

What do I do now?

How can I fix this?

You get the idea.

Aren’t movement, understanding and change always based on a question?

The point I am making here is that you will stay repeating the same thoughts and actions until you ask a question.

So then this leads to the fact that the beneficial outcome is based on the kind of questions you ask yourself.

Questions that probe deeper and deeper are the ones that are most valuable.

Questions that are bases on continually asking a question and being aware of the various answers you receive.

Questions that carry on from an answer you get.

Questions that continue to ask why - again and again - not just stopping at the first answer.

The quality of the outcome is directly related to the quality of the questions you ask.

This is related to a very basic concept - that there is always a new idea coming out of an existing one.

One idea leads to another.

Think about it - when you get an understanding about something, there are now new possibilities available that weren’t before.

The key here is that asking a question is the way that you seek that next understanding that builds upon the previous idea.

If you don’t ask - you remain with what you have.

Your unconscious mind may tend to resist this kind of probing questions if you are not accustomed to doing this.

Your mind will tend to just want to repeat what it has been doing.

This is where you will need to exercise your command over your thinking ability.

Learning to step aside from a situation to purposefully ask yourself questions with the purpose of developing new perspectives and understandings is a very valuable skill.

This stepping aside, quieting your chattering mind and asking questions is a skill that must be practiced frequently if you are to get it to be a normal part of your behavior.

You can only override your existing habitual ways of thinking by developing a new pattern.

One idea leads to another - and another, and so on.

Keep asking questions and you will find that you will get more and more appropriate and useful answers revealed to you.

You will learn to be receptive to more answers that come from your inner self and universal intelligence.

Be open to the feelings and varying ways answers are conveyed to you.

This is growth in action.

. . . On purpose.

John

“Every clarification breeds new questions.” — Arthur Bloch

“Asking the proper question is the central action of

transformation… Questions are the key that cause the secret

doors of the psyche to swing open.” — Clarissa Pinkola Estes

“The answers you receive depend upon the questions you ask.” — Thomas Kuhn

“Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.” — Albert Einstein

“The word question is derived from the Latin quarrier (to seek) which is the same root as the word for quest. A creative life is a continued quest, and good questions can be very useful guides.

Most useful are open-ended questions; they allow for fresh

unanticipated answers to reveal themselves.” — Source Unknown

“It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.” — Decouvertes