Ask, act, repeat

There’s one very simple way to assess someone’s trajectory. To determine whether they’re going somewhere or going nowhere. Here’s the question to ask of them: What do they do with the answers they receive?

“What do they do with the answers they receive?” implies that they ask questions in the first place. A good question is like a cheat code for the game of life. It allows you to level up way faster than normal. Undoubtedly, those who don’t ask questions are on a flatter trajectory than those who do. They’re more likely to be going nowhere.

But you can have too much of a good thing. You can ask too many questions. Those who ask too many questions aren’t much better than those who ask none. The important thing is how you use the answers, not how many questions you ask. See, the proper sequence for development is as follows: ask a question, act on the answer, repeat indefinitely. 

It’s pointless asking one hundred questions and receiving one hundred answers. What am I going to do with a hundred answers? Can I use them all? No way. Think about the scientific method. I can only test the impact of one variable at a time. If I alter ten and it changes the outcome, how do I know which of the ten, or which relationship between the ten is responsible? I can’t. It’s the same when it comes to personal improvement. There’s no point me implementing ten new ideas or strategies. Better to choose one thing, one answer to test in my life and focus on. If it works, great. If it doesn’t I can try another.

The quest for mastery and improvement is already complicated. Don’t make it more difficult by obscuring the path you need to walk on with a flood of answers. Ask a question, act on the answer, repeat indefinitely.