The Most Important Questions To Ask Yourself – Part 1 [Video]

 

Before we talk about the most important questions to ask yourself, let me ask you this:

 

• Have you ever felt that you’re not making any progress?
• Does it sometimes feel that not much has changed over the past few years?
• Do you wish for things to “get better”, but somehow they don’t?

That’s how I felt many years ago.

Some might say my life was “good.”

After all, I had a 6-figure income.  I had a “secure” job – or at least that’s what I thought.

But I felt stuck.

I felt that I was going through the motions:

Getting up in the morning, doing my job, coming home at night, … eat, sleep, repeat.

… and I remember being tired most of the time. Trying to catch up on sleep on the weekends.

I hoped that things would get better.

That I didn’t have to work that hard.

That I would have more money in my retirement account.

That I had more time for my family, for my friends, … and also for myself.

But “hope” is not a strategy!

In this article, I want to show you what exactly I did to turn my life around and become a multi-millionaire.

The Most Important Questions To Ask Yourself

One of the most important things you can learn is how to control your focus.

Because where focus goes, energy flows.

So how do you control your focus? – Ask better questions.

The worst question you could ask when planning your life is “What should I do?”

Here’s a much better question to ask yourself:

“The Dan Sullivan Question”

This question is probably the most important questions you can ask yourself, and it was “invented” by Dan Sullivan – hence the name.

Here it is:

“If we were having this conversation 3 years from now, and you were looking back over these 3 years, what has to have happened in your life, both personally and professionally, for you to feel happy with your progress?”

Here’s why this question is so powerful:

Timeframe

This question has a very specific timeframe: 3 years. 

And there’s a reason why it’s exactly 3 years, and not 1 year or 5 years or 10 years. 

Most people overestimate what they can do in 1 year. 3 years is a very realistic timeframe to achieve ambitious goals. 

As an example, it is VERY realistic to start trading and make enough money to quit your job in 3 years from now. More about this later.

“… Looking Back …”

This is a weird psychological trick: When we ask ourselves “if you were looking back over the past 3 years”, our brain is assuming that these things already happened! 

It’s really interesting:

When we trick our brain into thinking that something has happened, we remove the “I can’t” limitation. 

Here’s an example: 

When you do this exercise and answer this question with something like “In 3 years from now, I have built my retirement account to $1 Million Dollars”, then it’s no longer a question for how IF you can do it. 

Since you tricked your brain into thinking that you will have achieved it, the question now becomes “HOW” can I do it.

By using the “looking back” trick, you will remove “I can’t” limitation that’s holding back way too many people.

“… Both Personally and Professionally …”

By including your personal and professional life into this question, you’re making sure that you are covering all areas of your life. 

And think about it:

When you ask yourself “what has to happen personally”, you are including major areas such as…

• Family
• Health
• Relationships
• Free Time
• Spirituality

So, on the one hand, it’s specific enough to cover all areas of your life and yet broad enough so that you don’t limit yourself.

Another key factor is that the phrase “what has to have happened in your life, both personally and professionally” allows us to list both positive and negative things.

As an example, you can say: In 3 years from now…

• I will no longer have to sit in traffic in rush hour (negative)
• I don’t have to deal with annoying coworkers any more (negative)
• I have $1,000,000 in my bank account (positive)
• And I don’t have to worry about paying bills anymore (negative)

Sometimes it’s easier to say what we DON’T want than what we want. 

The good news: Once you list all the things that you DON’T want, the opposite of this is what you want.

Example:

“I DON’T want to sit in traffic” becomes “I will work from home”

That’s why the first assignment in my challenge “Design Your Ideal Life And Make It A Reality” is to write a list of all the things you DON’T want to do.

Let’s move on to the next important phrase in this question, which is the most important questions to ask yourself

“… To Feel Happy …”

This part of the question taps into the most basic and powerful human need: Feeling happy!

We all strive for happiness!

NOBODY in this world is looking for misery.
As you can see, the most important question you can ask yourself does NOT say “to feel successful.” 

Because as you know, there are many successful people who are unhappy.

In order to design a life worth living, design a life that makes you HAPPY!

• If having $10,000,000 in your bank account makes you happy, that’s covered.
• If feeding 100,000 kids in Africa makes you happy, that’s covered.
• If spending every minute of the day with your family and friends makes you happy, that’s covered.

Asking for “what makes you happy” allows you to insert ANYTHING into your answer, and not only “money.”

“…With Your Progress”

Notice that the question does not ask “what would make you feel happy?”

It asks “what would make you feel happy with your progress?”

By asking about the PROGRESS, it allows us to create an intermediate step.  It means that we don’t need to be “done” in 3 years.  It means that we get to the next level in 3 years.

And then we can take another 3 years to get to another level.

Here’s a personal example:

When I quit my 6-figure job at IBM, my first goal was to have $1,000,000 in my account.

After I achieved that goal, I set the next goal to have a net worth of $10,000,000.

Right now, my goal is to achieve a net worth of $100,000,000.

However, if I would have set a goal to go from $30,000 in my bank account to $100,000,000 in net worth in 3 years, it would have been VERY unrealistic.

But to go from $30,000 to $1,000,000 in 3 years is very realistic.

And you know what they say: The first million is the most difficult.

Therefore setting a goal to go from $1 Million to $10 Million in 3 years is very realistic, too.

And once you learn how to achieve a net worth of $10 Million, it’s very realistic to target a net worth of $100 Million in 3 years.

As you can see, this question is one of the most important questions to ask yourself.

There are 2 more, and I will cover them in another article.

For now, grab a pen and paper and start answering the question:

“If we were having this conversation 3 years from now, and you were looking back over these 3 years, what has to have happened in your life, both personally and professionally, for you to feel happy with your progress?”

If you want, post the answer in the comments.

I can’t wait to read about it!

I’ll be back soon with Part 2 of “The Most Important Questions To Ask Yourself”