What colour is your mojo? The power of strange questions to help you fi nd your way
Don’t you think
it’s time to question the answers to questions you answered so long
ago you’ve forgotten the question and live by the answer?
T
he power of strange questions is that they can give you surprisingly powerful answers. Often, when faced with a diffi cult situation, we tend to question ourselves in familiar ways, such as “why did this happen?”, when switching it
around to something quirky like “what would Santa do?” can wake up your subconscious and give you access to some totally original insights. (Sadly, Santa doesn’t do any consulting work, but he’s
fi ne for you to use him, or the Wombles, or Superman or any unexpected character to help you free yourself from your limiting beliefs) Strange questions have a long and distinguished history
in many cultures. In Zen Buddhism, they’re called ‘Koans’. To paraphrase a well known one which you may have heard of: “what is the sound of one hand clapping?” It’s not about the clap, it’s about the space in your mind that the strange question produces. A place where new thoughts can be born. (You can clap now). Strange questions have the power to shift you sideways
and show you that what you think are ‘facts’ are actually ‘beliefs’. And once you become aware of your beliefs, you
have the power to discard them and upgrade them. Do you really want to run your life on decisions you made when you were fi ve? Don’t you think it’s time to question the answers to
questions you answered so long ago you’ve forgotten the question and live by the answer? (Try that one three times outloud!) Learning to bamboozle yourself with unusual questions is a playful and intriguing way to free up your mind and empower yourself to change. Sometimes, a new question can lead to a new answer. And that can lead to all kinds of mischief! If you’ve decided you’re boring, not good at numbers,
rubbish at small talk or are too old to have fun, ask yourself this: is that true? Is it an incontrovertible fact that can be observably proved to be correct? Chances are, it isn’t. It’s an opinion + time = belief. Reality is relative, beliefs can be changed and facts are
rarely incontrovertible. Life is long for our generation. Way too long to get old.
And much too long to stop asking ourselves questions. If you’re boring yourself, try asking yourself some strange questions. My mojo is orange. What colour is yours? b