Why You Should Ask Yourself This Question 5 Times

Photo by AZGAN MjESHTRI on Unsplash

It turns out, there's a quick and effective technique that experts use to solve problems. What's great about this technique is that it works for business problems just as well as it works for personal problems. It's a simple question but you have to ask yourself this question 5 times.

Ask yourself this question 5 times:

1. Why are you doing all of this work?
2. Why is that?
3. And so why would that be?
4. Why might you think that?
5. Why again?

Seems ridiculous to ask yourself "why?" five times, but understanding the WHY behind your work is important.

This is the fastest way to move from surface curiosity to a root cause of a problem. This technique is well known in productivity circles like SixSigma.

One of the things I love about this is that it requires no math and it will help you call out the relationships between the problems you face.

It will also support your motivation, a constant daily battle for each of us. Here's a post I wrote about using the 5 Whys to solve business problems with a few extra tricks thrown in.

Sure, you don't need a great "why" to make money or do the things you want, but you do need a strong "why" if you want to live a life of social impact and purpose.

Audit your "why" and you will increase the chances of living a regret-free, purpose-driven life.

Audit your "why" in other areas of your work and life and you will get down to the real issue you need to address.

2 Minute Action

Ask yourself "why" 5 times.

You might be surprised at what you find.

If you have trouble doing this by yourself, enlist a friend to help push you.

No excuses.

[SERIES] 5/7 Unpopular Belief: Trust Your Gut

But what about evidence?What about data?What about expert opinion?This is Part 5 of the 7 Unpopular Beliefs Series.

Trust Your Gut!

Expert Advice

The idea here is that you're believing in someone else's abilities to understand your situation better than you. Sometimes that's really helpful.In that case, you'd be following your gut to go with someone else's.

Heuristics

If you've done this a million times before, you've probably developed what psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer refers to as a heuristic based gut feeling.The idea is that even if you can't consciously articulate your situation, your brain has seen this so many times that it's actually making you feel what's different this time.It's called a heuristic. We use these all the time.

Can you read this?

I cnduo't bvleiee taht I culod aulaclty uesdtannrd waht I was rdnaieg. Unisg the icndeblire pweor of the hmuan mnid, aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mttaer in waht oderr the lterets in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae.

That's a really basic heuristic. Your brain is just making it happen for you.If you've done something enough times, Gigerenzer estimates that 80% of the time, your gut is accurate. That is a really, really good chance.

Avoid Regret

Ultimately, a major motivator for people is avoiding regret. We don't want to get to our death beds and struggle with something we should or shouldn't have done.If you didn't follow your gut, you have a much higher likelihood of regretting your decision.If the expert was wrong, you can blame the expert. How were you supposed to know? You're not the expert.If you had a gut feeling and you ignored it . . . good luck getting rid of that regret.If your wrong and went with your gut, well, you were just wrong. But at least you didn't know the answer and pick something else.

*Disclaimer for High-Stakes Decisions*

Remember the consequences of your decision in high-stakes situations.Here's an example of a flawed gut feeling:In 1999 NYPD fatally shot Amadou Diallo in New York City. Police fired when they thought the young Guinean man was reaching for a weapon, but he was actually unarmed and digging in his pocket for his identification.What happened? Social conditioning creates non-conscious beliefs. These beliefs are hard to identify because they're non-conscious. You're not aware you have them. This is the basis for racism, classism, sexism and a ton of other "isms."It's these non-conscious beliefs that produce the first impressions that can trigger flawed decisions.

2 Minute Action

Here are a few things that only take 2 minutes to do:

• Is there someone in your life who just drains the energy out of you? That's a gut feeling. Cut it off.
• Make a subtle gesture of gratitude or kindness to someone you otherwise might not. This helps those around you feel safe and more like themselves. Others are less likely to make rash decisions or judgments when they feel like we're all on the same team.
• Phone a friend. If you have a high-stakes decision to make, call 3 experts.

8 Things School Didn't Teach You That You Need To Know

The skills you were taught in school are mostly not that useful anymore.

• You don't need to know that the Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.
• You don't need to know that Neptune is a gas planet.
• You don't need to know that an isoscolese triangle has two sides of equal length.

What you DO need to know is now up to you.

Until we change what we teach in schools, no one else is going to teach you what you actually need to know.Here are 8 examples to get started:

1. History has been written by the winners, and you can either sit still or help the rest of us re-write it.
2. Good guys think they are the good guys and bad guys think they are the good guys, so it's up to you to question authority and question yourself.
3. There is a 0% return on investment for complaining, so you'd better turn that into motivation or you'll be stuck.
4. A spreadsheet is simple and incredibly useful--you need to know how to use one effectively.
5. Heart disease is the most common (1 in 4) causes of death in the U.S.--so, yeah, learning to cook and eat healthily is a life-changer.
6. The most common regret of the dying is "not having the courage to live a life true to themselves," so maybe you should figure out what that means and how to get it.
7. There are a lot of different personalities out there and you're going to have to work with them, so you'd better learn to negotiate and operate alongside them.
8. It's hard to know when to put yourself first and when to put others first, but with some practice, you can figure it out.

This is just a quick list of things that have been on my mind.These "soft" skills are so critical in our world and they're not part of any curriculum I've seen.Until they're taught in schools, it's up to you to teach yourself (and those around you).

2 Minute Action

Pick one from the list that is resonating with you.I want you to take real action this time--not self-reflection or setting up bigger tasks for later.Ask yourself right now what you can do to move closer to your goal in 2 minutes.It's okay if it's small, in fact, that's the point.Everyone has 2 minutes.Let me know what your action is in the comments or if you have any other life-skills that should be added to this list.