For the ones in a rush, the questions are: Why? What? Where? When? Who? How? But of course, by themselves, they mean absolutely nothing. You have heard this before, Socratic questioning is nothing new after all. There is one key ingredient that will let you use them properly, “stepping out”.

Why should we step out for a second??

Your life has momentum. Ever since you wake up from bed till you fall asleep, there are tasks at hand, preoccupations, and projects you must attend to. Your mind must keep up with this and you follow a very simple pattern, “What next? And now? And now?”.

This implies that you are not thinking about the big picture, and just like somebody with a card stuck to his forehead, you might miss something brutally obvious.

This is fine most of the time, there is no reason, and is not even recommendable, to spend every minute preoccupied with the greater meaning of things, our life, and existence; Sometimes you gotta get shit done. 😋

So you must work out a balance, or at least a system, that will help you see whether there is a card stuck in your forehead or not.

What can you do? 

You could follow the practice of setting up a specific time of the day, to reflect on how things go. In my case, is at night. I have an alarm at 22:00, that is telling me to shut off. This includes screens, work-related tasks and, other grinding things I am involved in.

This is the moment to reflect on your day. What went right, wrong, and in between? I often reflect on whether I am proud of my own actions.

Other people prefer to schedule a day of their week for pure planning the week ahead.

What you end up doing is up to you, but here is the key point: You must remind yourself about it. It also requires self-discipline to stop with your task-to-task drill.

You have in your hands some you time. How shall you use it?

Now we ask ourselves, Why? What? Where? When? Who? How?

You have preoccupations during the day, namely projects and grand quests for ultimate awesome. You can begin asking yourself things such as.

Why have I done A, B, and C today? Why am I so focused on this?

What negative patterns I am encountering? What bold move do I avoid taking?

Where should I allocate my resources? Where could I improve?

When is the right time for A, B, and Z? When could I act differently?

Who are the important people for X, Y, and Z? Who should I give more attention and care to?

How can save me of some misery? How could I overcome this obstacle?

Take the Why? What? Where? When? Who? How as a framework; they are there to shift your thinking into clarity, there is no good and wrong here.

I basically go inside of my mind:

“why…why…. what question could I ask myself that begins with Why?”

And soon or later question pops in!

I hope this writing has been of some help, keep in touch and subscribe if you find some personal value out of it. There is much more from where this came from 😎