Overheard:

Learn how to ask “cutting” questions to instantly start helping you improve your results. By asking key questions, you can cut through the fog or cut to the chase and figure out what really counts. But first you must empower your self to question every thing and any thing that you have been taught. The right way to go about this is inquisition vs "know it all".

Why Ask Questions at all?

Asking the right questions can help you balance, focus, make better decisions, and prioritize more effectively. What does that even mean?

Better questions= better answer. Think of the last meeting or dinner conversation you were part of. What did you ask. Do you remember why? What was the outcome?

I copy pasted this(txt below) during some reading online, cant recall where and contextualized the frame of reference as a thinking block in bold. It helps me a lot. Take a read. Did it help you?

• Asking questions changes your focus. You can change your focus by changing your question, and this allows you to quickly switch perspectives or get a new lens on things. For example, by asking yourself “What’s right in your life?” you get a very different result than asking, “What’s wrong with your life?” Some people never ask themselves what’s right in their life, and they lose appreciation for what they’ve got, and they blow the bad things out of proportion. (Framing Matters)

• Direct your self-talk more effectively. Change your questions and you change your game. Rather than “tell” yourself to do things, you can ask more effective questions to get more resourceful. For example, “How might I solve this” or “What’s a good approach?” or “Who else shares this problem that I can learn from?” You can also get unstuck by switching gears from “Why” to “How” questions. For example, rather than ask, “Why does this always happen to me?”, ask yourself either, “What are you going to do about it?” or “How will you avoid this in the future?”(Move the Tonality move your outcomes)

• Asking questions creates opportunity. If you want more conflict in your life, simply make more statements. Statements create conflict. Somebody can always argue with a statement. You can even argue with yourself. Switching to questions, opens up exploration. (Create opportunity not conflict)

• Questions create “ah-has.” When you ask questions, you can actually create emotional connections as you have your insight and “ah-ha” moments. These emotional links are more powerful than just raw information.(You do better when you remember how you felt when you got an Answer)

Outcomes

Your outcomes get better when you loose focus.

That cant be right?

It is 100% right. We are too obsessed with our surroundings, politics, other peoples business, the neighbors, the relatives, the people at the office, in school, in university at religious and family gatherings, 3rd parties and their personal affairs, their outcomes, their kids university admissions, their grades, their new spouse, where they live the kind of things they eat, their instagram their kids "tarbiyat" their vacations, their insta, their lives and then some.

Loose the focus, around you | to | regain focus around your self.

Easier said than done.

As a nation we need to un learn worrying about other peoples outcomes and focus on our intent, ability, commitment, execution and re align our own life's inputs so our outputs/outcomes can be winners.

Reframe the next dinner conversation to

1) What you did today

2)How was every ones day

3)The one big question thats bothering you

4)What does it take to go an extra mile (at work, home school)

vs

1)What x aunty called and told mom about y aunties son being a looser

2)The cost of Mian sbs home

3)The political conjecture being forward to you

4)The cars mr J has vs Mr Q

If you are a young parent, listen up. Turn off the news and turn on classical music/ted talk/religious stories, any thing but the boomers on tv talking down to a generation they do not understand.

If you must discuss politics do not discuss it over dinner, it creates last memories, discuss happy outcomes of progress, and mindfulness at dinner vs gloom and doom.

Talk to your children, vs talking at your children. Have fun with them vs sharing things beyond your or their control. Talk about positivity and better outcomes and the actions one can control vs cursing the inaction of political and state actors.

Focus on your family unit vs giving that space to people, conversations, actors that are outside the circle of your relevance. At some level selfish but at many levels a core survival trick for happiness.

Create moments your children and family will remember as a happy place vs a place to spew/debate/discuss other peoples lives. No one is discussing your life on their dinner table stop making others relevant to gain relevance back within your family unit and regain headspace, clarity and happiness.

One New Thing (that I learnt recently)

'Jurassic World' was not being racist – there really is a dinosaur named Pakisaurus

Scientific name: Pakisaurus balochistani.

Pakisaurus was a herbivore. It lived in the Cretaceous period and inhabited Asia. Its fossils have been found in places such as Balouchistan (Pakistan).

Quick facts about Pakisaurus:

• Existed from 72.1 million years ago to 66 million years ago

• Lived in a terrestrial habitat

• Was a herbivore

• Reproduced by laying eggs

• 4 different specimens have been found by paleontologists

What you should be Reading

A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul

This is one of the few books a person could read for their entire life.Just turn the page to todays date, read the page repeat for rest of your life and you sure will get wiser. Forget social media calendar and focus

This is the first-ever English-language edition of the book Leo Tolstoy considered to be his most important contribution to humanity, the work of his life's last years. Widely read in pre revolutionary Russia, banned and forgotten under Communism; and recently rediscovered to great excitement, A Calendar of Wisdom is a day-by-day guide that illuminates the path of a life worth living with a brightness undimmed by time. Unjustly censored for nearly a century, it deserves to be placed with the few books in our history that will never cease teaching us the essence of what is important in this world.

Monetize your time

To turn your knowledge into wealth, you have to understand that you have the solution to a problem and someone out there has the money to pay you for that solution. It’s time for you to start showing up as the one with the solution.

Ready to monetize your knowledge?

You can monetize your time.

You can monetize your brand.

You can monetize your name.

You can monetize your reputation.

You can monetize your thoughts and your imagination.

You can monetize your network.

You can monetize your experience.

you can monetize your voice.

Made in Pakistan

One Last Thing

This is the most epic item, Ive read this month. Net net, a ladder is a tool. A fool with a tool is still a fool. Figuring out the directionality of action is some times more important than the action.