We’ve officially moved into the second half of 2017. With six more months to go of this year, now is a great opportunity to check in on your New Year’s Resolutions and take stock in where you are against the goals you’ve set for the year.
At the start of this year we challenged you to do something new, something a bit different when it came to your New Year’s Resolution that may enable you to realize real results, we called this “Questolutions.” This type of “resolution” required you to ask questions and then answer them, instead of making more general to-do statements.
As a refresh, Questolutions, the solution-oriented inquiry, has been shown to produce consistent, significant changes in a variety of contexts from exercise and eating healthier to business growth. By asking ambitious, yet actionable questions, you can shift the way you think and it can serve as a catalyst to bring about change.
Questolutions can help you rediscover momentum in your business, career, or personal life when you feel like you’ve hit a wall. For example, if your goal is to get back in shape, your Questolution may be, “How might I fit exercise into my day?” By asking a specific question you now have a clearer path to achieve your answer and therefore success. You may then answer your Questolution by looking at your weekly schedule and finding a half hour, three times that week for you to block out for time at the gym or a quick run around your neighborhood. Think actionable, not hypothetical.
There are many obvious reasons why this may work but on a more subconscious level, Questolutions are very much like puzzles, it prompts a psychological response. Once a question or puzzle has been raised, the mind almost can’t help trying to solve or answer it. By posing your resolution in the form of a question, or a small series of questions, rather than a statement, you begin to engage with it. Your brain goes to work breaking down the problem, sequencing next steps and creating a path to success. Questions spark creative, flexible thinking instead of a stressed heated state that result from the overwhelming traditional New Year’s Resolution.
So where are you now? Ask yourself if you’re doing the things you need to do to continue down your path to personal and professional success. If your answer is yes, then great! Keep executing against your objectives. If your answer is no, don’t worry – its never too late to hit the reset button and give yourself a fresh start. If you feel like you’re not moving down the path to where you want to be, just reevaluate your goals and start a new plan for the second half of 2017.
