Why Ask and Wait?

​Dear Why Team member,
I hope this week’s message finds you well and encouraged.
This week we ask:
 
Why Ask and Wait?

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Why Ask and Wait?
 
Most of us have heard that good things come to those who wait. We have also heard that good things come to those who hustle. I suppose the trick is to recognize when best to wait and when best to hustle. When it comes to the really big why questions in our life, my experience has been first the courage to ask them and then maybe the greater courage to wait for the answers. Patience is a virtue and asking more why questions can certainly help us develop it.
 
Last week we began a series on identifying keys for unlocking more of the potential that lies within us; beginning with the exploration of our past. This week, we consider the power of unanswered questions.
 
Tony Robbins once said that the quality of our life depends upon the quality of our questions. Which reminds me of the old adage that to get the right answers, we have to ask the right questions. Experience has revealed to me that questions beginning with the word “Why” not only are of higher quality, they also may be more often the right questions to ask for us to get the right answers. And of course, the rule being that the more we practice, the better we will become.
 
Louis Pasture said fortune favors the prepared mind. Nothing has prepared my mind more for fortune, not just financial fortune, but more importantly, fortune of insight, fortune of understanding, than asking why questions. Why-questions prepare the soil in the garden of the mind for seeds of insight to take root. If we have the courage to ask, and then the patience to wait, the mind will very often find what it seeks.
 
In the ancient text reads, “seek and you will find, ask and it shall be given onto you” - the text, however, does not tell us how long we may have to wait to find or to receive.
This week’s key for unlocking more potential, is to ask more significant questions and do your best to be at peace with no immediate answers.
Why is this powerful?
The human brain is very uncomfortable with the unknown. It’s almost impossible to keep it from jumping to conclusions. In lieu of patience, our brains often make up answers to unanswered questions because it craves certainty. I know people who will often jump to the end of a book because they can’t wait to see how the story ends. Not knowing is uncomfortable; knowing, however, gives us a sense of control. Even if what we think isn’t true, it’s comforting to have an answer, to fill the gap, to fill the void. Haven’t you ever noticed how the less someone actually knows, the more skillful they have become at making stuff up?!
Consider how the know-it-all rarely learns at all. It takes humility to learn, to admit you don’t know, but the upside is that you get to learn more.
Developing our sense of wonder demands that we wonder, wonder about the nature of our world and our role within it.
 
For self-discovery, as discussed in last week’s post, it’s an absolute must to ask why:
Why did I do that?
Why do I think that?
Why do I hold onto thoughts that disturb me?
Why do I not embrace and integrate all that has happened in my life?
These questions do not have easy answers, and that is the whole point. To break our habits of thinking that can primarily revolve around “what” and “how” questions, we ask more difficult “why” questions.
 
As a Why Team member, it should come as no surprise that asking more why questions is this week’s key to unlocking more potential.
The power, again, is found in our brain’s discomfort with the unknown. It seems once a question is registered, our minds really never give up until an answer is found. What in time can feel like magic, is really the blossoming of seeds often planted in the distant past. To move up and beyond our limiting habitual thoughts, we can start asking more significant questions. And in time, the insights will come. An example of this phenomenon is hearing repeated recommendations of a book - get the book - we all have questions; the answers are trying to get to us.
When the student is ready with the questions, the teachers are provided with the answers. Ask more questions, be ready for more answers.
 
This week, more than ever, ask and know it will be given to you - in time, seek and know you will find - in time. Good things really do come to those with the courage to ask and the patience to wait. Think-up new why questions, write them down and speak them out - and in time - notice how this key alone will open doors for a brighter future.
 
Make it a great week,

Steve Luckenbach