“If we would only give, just once, the same amount of reflection to what we want to get out of life that we give to the question of what to do with a two week’s vacation, we would be startled at our false standards and the aimless procession of our busy days.” -Dorothy Canfield Fisher

“You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.” –Naguib Mahfouz

“Our journey is to discover the questions that will enchant the answers within us to come out dancing.” -Mary Marcdante

“It is not only by the questions we have answered that progress may be measured, but also by those we are still asking.” -Freda Adler

When you are living and taking action on a “moving toward” goal then the questions you ask yourself are very different questions than those you’d be asking yourself if your goal is to avoid something. Our learning and development is all about the questions that we ask and answers we find on that journey.

Revisit your current goals and make sure to ask yourself, am I moving towards something that inspires me or am I pursuing this goal to move away from an undesired situation? One of these two choices brings with it much more power and fun for accomplishing what it is that you’re actually seeking to achieve, from your heart.

In the words of Abraham-Hicks, “Get so fixated on what you want, that you drown out any vibration or reverberation that has anything to do with what you do not want”.

 
INSTRUCTIONS
 

If needed, here is a (ad) PDF of the 49 questions for you too.

Before each set of questions I have included an audio for you, to expand on what is meant by each of the questions.

There is a text box for each question, which is where you can enter your responses (you can make your answers as lengthy as you want). The questions and your responses are then sent to you in an email.

This exercise may take well over 90-minutes to complete. It is very much worth spending that time to get yourself clear about what you truly want to create for your life.

Responses to the questions are 100% confidential. Your personal details will NOT be shared or added to ANY list.

Your next Forward Steps may already be hidden in your answers. Save a copy and revisit them in the future.

Enter your name and email address at the top of each section. At the end of each question set, you can choose to email your responses to yourself and/or download a PDF copy to keep for future reflection.

You can then return, to complete the remaining questions.

Before beginning each section of the exercise, I recommend listening to its audio (at top of each section).

Underneath all the 3 sets of questions you’ll find your added bonuses.

 
SET 1 – Questions 1-16 of 50
 

CLICK HERE FOR PDF TRANSCRIPT OF THIS AUDIO (opens in new tab)
 

CLICK HERE FOR PDF TRANSCRIPT OF THIS AUDIO (opens in new tab)
 

CLICK HERE FOR PDF TRANSCRIPT OF THIS AUDIO (opens in new tab)
 

Click Here To Read A Wonderfully Inspiring Story Of Lena

There’s nothing like just the right questions at exactly the right moments to provide “Aha!” moments.

Below, I have 130 questions listed for you, as well as the Phoenix Checklist and a Need Identification PDF.

Each of those questions are linked to a web site that has information relative to that power question.

Two of the best questions that you could ask yourself for taking anything into a forward direction, are “How?” and “When?”

A couple of my favorite questions are: What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail? -AND- If not now, then when?

Carry a notebook with you to write down questions that come to mind. Allow yourself to be OK with questions that are not answered. Sometimes we just need to float around with those for a while.
 
130 Conscience Squirmers
 

The following 130 questions are each linked to another web site with useful information about that question/topic. Some may be affiliate links, though most are not.

If there are any pages that are no longer active sites, then please do let me know.

What is distracting or concerning you the most at the moment?
What opportunities and possibilities are you not taking (most) advantage of?
What would you like more of in your life, personally and professionally?
What or who are you not celebrating enough in your life, and would like to?
If you were to be more responsible for creating your life, where would you start?

What would happen if you accomplished your goal?
What would happen if you didn’t accomplish your goal?
What wouldn’t happen if you accomplished your goal?
What wouldn’t happen if you didn’t accomplish your goal?
How will you know when you’ve accomplished your goal?

Are you crystal clear yet, about what you truly want?
Who and what are you listening to?
Do you set yourself tasks or do you live by a created vision?
What in your life, excites you the most?
What do you work hard at not feeling?

In your life, what’s the main game worth playing?
Is there anything you are ignoring to which you should be paying attention?
Is there a better way you could begin each day?
What do you need to be doing now?
If you had to guess your life purpose, what would it be?

Are you too critical and far too harsh with yourself?
Do you have access to your own happiness?
When you feel successful, what shows up in your life?
When was the last time you asked “Why not me”?
What do you value most in life?

What are 100 things you want to do before you die?
What will keep you ‘walking’ when you want to turn back and quit?
What is funny about the way you live your life?
Do you have any MUST do’s hanging around?
Do you have the courage to stop for a while and just “be”?

Do you manage the health of all three areas of mind, body and soul?
Do you know what distances you from your experience of freedom?
What would ease your worries, and what will you do about it?
Where are you going and who are you going with?
What is your theme for next year?

What is it that you say “you must” do today?
Are you still paddling around in the streams, or are you preparing to go to sea?
With what project will you follow through to the end, no matter what?
Does your nutrition sustain your energy levels for the goals you have?
What thought patterns prevent you from creating the life you want?

If not NOW…then, when?
What gift do you bring to the world, that you could give away?
Are you ready to create your own life this year?
What could you create today?
What one belief could you change, right now?

Can you depend on your word, to yourself?
Are the changes you make, actual improvements to your life?
What gets you to perform at your peak ability?
During which activities do you feel most energized?
How are those new year resolutions of yours, moving along?

What would happen if you gave up seeking for who you truly are?
Where is your attention located?
What is the next personal challenge you will set for yourself?
What do you love most about your life, right now?
How could you allocate time to better serve your life goals?

In what areas have you already grown, this year?
What stands in your way, to achieving everything you have ever dreamed?
What greater vision could you create, in which to encompass your smaller goals?
What thought provoking question could you ask yourself today?
To what extent can you be satisfied with your current lifestyle?

What sustains you from the inside when all else falls away?
What do you hold on to that blocks your view of life?
What is it that you truly want to experience during the course of your life?
Do we attract everything that happens to us in our lives?
Are you willing to step up to the plate regarding your goals?

Are you doing it alone?
What will you be looking back on, at the end of your life?
How would your life change if you turned your false statements, into positive ones?
What new patterns of action do you need to put into motion?
Where could you show leadership, and be a change catalyst?

What is the biggest challenge that you are facing?
What questions do your regularly ask yourself?
What strengths do others perceive in you?
What dreams have you given up on?
Where is your greatest desire to serve?

What recent lessons have you learned, and will you remember?
What do you want that you have not yet accomplished?
When are you most comfortable with yourself?
What have you firmly decided for yourself and your life?
What could you do, to be even more clear about what you really want?

What is your clear-cut, crystal vision and strategy for your success?
Are you thinking, or are you worrying? Do you confuse these two?
What do you say to yourself when external circumstances are not favorable
What responsibility do you take for your own happiness?
What is at the center of the ‘fire in your belly’?

Do you know how to deal with changes you don’t like?
If ‘like attracts like’, then what surrounds you at this time?
Do you practice building your courage with following your intuition?
Are you ‘just working’, or have you discovered a bigger picture for your activities?
What is your current financial condition?

What do you allow to take you down, when life is going great?
What have you firmly decided to accomplish?
What are you doing to nurture your imaginative, creative thought?
Is there anything which you’d given up, that you could get moving again?
If your life continues on its current path, what will it be like in five years?

Do you include a little reflection time into each day?
What triggers your positive emotions?
What are you most determined to accomplish in your life?
What is most important… what’s happening or what you do next about it?
What really defines success for you?

What would you say your current mission is?
Starting today, what future do you want to create?
Are moving forward, sideways, diagonally or in reverse?
What is the environment in which you immerse yourself each day?
How do you know that you know, what you think you know?

What could bring you that feeling of aliveness, today?
What will you do today to increase the love quotient?
Are you bigger than your problems, or are your problems bigger than you?
What could you do to replace a few old ideas and encourage imagination?
What restrictions, you’ve placed on you, could you now begin to release?

What would it take to trust yourself to succeed?
What keeps tripping you up?
In what areas will you dare to be different?
What about you, causes other people to want you in their life?
What is perfect rest and relaxation, for you?

What is your best remedy for injecting enthusiasm into the things you do?
If this was your last day of life, would you want to do what you plan to do today?
What will you do today that is more YOU than anything else?
Which habit are you working on improving, or including in your life today?
What could you copy or correct in yourself, from examples of others?

What captivating moments are you ready to have?
What can you do today to improve your life forever?
What are you creating in your life, and in the lives of others?
Are your days like play to you, or do you carry a burden each day?
What are the top five goals in your life?

What can you do today to be happy with your life, forever?
What are your highest priorities?
What have you been avoiding or pushing aside?
How do you want the rest of your life to unfold?
What project do you love enough to make happen, no matter what?
 
The Phoenix Checklist Part I & Part II
 

The CIA developed the Phoenix Checklist to help agents apply a thorough, consistent process when confronting the complex problems they often see in the field.

Part I of the Phoenix Checklist showed how to define a problem effectively before you begin to solve it.

Part II focuses on building a good plan to solve the problem.

The following are the first 16 questions in the Phoenix Checklist:

1. Why is it necessary to solve the problem?
2. What benefits will you receive by solving the problem?
3. What is the unknown?
4. What is it you don’t yet understand?
5. What is the information you have?
6. What isn’t the problem?
7. Is the information sufficient? Or is it insufficient? Or redundant? Or contradictory?
8. Should you draw a diagram of the problem? A figure?
9. Where are the boundaries of the problem?
10. Can you separate the various parts of the problem? Can you write them down? What are the relationships of the parts of the problem?
11. What are the constants (things that can’t be changed) of the problem?
12. Have you seen the problem before?
13. Have you seen this problem in a slightly different form?
14. Do you know a related problem?
15. Can you think of a familiar problem having the same or a similar unknown?
16. Suppose you find a problem related to yours that has already been solved. Can you use it? Can you use its method?

The following are the key questions in Part II of the Phoenix Checklist:

1. Can you solve the whole problem? Part of the problem?
2. What would you like the resolution to be? Can you picture it?
3. How much of the unknown can you determine?
4. Can you derive something useful from the information you have?
5. Have you used all the information?
6. Have you taken into account all essential notions in the problem?
7. Can you separate the steps in the problem-solving process? Can you determine the correctness of each step?
8. What creative thinking techniques can you use to generate ideas? How many different techniques?
9. Can you see the result? How many different kinds of results can you see?
10. How many different ways have you tried to solve the problem?
11. What have others done?
12. Can you intuit the solution? Can you check the result?
13. What should be done? How should it be done?
14. Where should it be done?
15. When should it be done?
16. Who should do it?
17. What do you need to do at this time?
18. Who will be responsible for what?
19. Can you use this problem to solve some other problem?
20. What is the unique set of qualities that makes this problem what it is and none other?

Source: Phoenix Checklist
 

The Need Identification Analysis
 

I think that you might also very much enjoy looking through the pages of this (ad) Need Identification PDF

I also really like what Luciano Passuello has written about the (ad) 10 Best Ways to Harness the Power of Questions.
 

Hi, I'm Thea Westra at Forward Steps (forwardstepsblog.com)

Since March 2003, I've been sharing practical, positive, thought provoking and inspiring self improvement content online. My aim is simple - to offer tips and resources that help us enhance our daily experience of life and to keep stepping forward. Perth, Western Australia is the place I call home and I'm the author of "Time For My Life: 365 Stepping Stones". You might also know me from the Forward Steps personal development blog and the daily series of "365 Forward Steps Notes", all designed to add wings to our unique life journeys.

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