The Four-Word Question That Changed My Life
Confession: For most of my life, I went about solving problems and accomplishing goals in a manner that limited my potential.
I ruminated on the how.
How do I do that?
How do I solve this problem?
How do I accomplish this goal?
Then, I thought of all the impossible solutions. I thought of the giant holes in my knowledge. I thought of all the hows that I could not accomplish because I did not know how.
And then I had a breakthrough, thanks to Dan Sullivan. (As you all know, I am a junkie for coaches and personal development, and Dan Sullivan of the Strategic Coach is one of my all-time-favorite mentors.)
Dan changed my life a few years ago when he pointed out that I was asking the wrong question: I was asking how to do something when I should have been asking who could help me.
Who can help me? That question changed my life.
I like to think I’m a smart guy, but the truth is that I don’t know most things. If you were to measure my brain against the entirety of human knowledge, my noggin’ doesn’t even hold one percent.
When I ask this one question—”Who can help me?”—I open up a world of opportunities that exist beyond the confines of my wee little brain.
“Making this shift involves retraining your brain to stop limiting your potential based on what you can do on your own and instead focuses on the infinite and endless connections between yourself and other people, as well as the limitless transformation possible through those connections,” wrote Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy, authors of the forthcoming book Who Not How.
The next time you find yourself up against a problem you cannot solve, or considering a goal you want to accomplish, remember that there are people out there who can help you overcome your obstacles, and you likely already know them!
So ask those four little words: Who can help me?
And, if you want to have a breakthrough, pre-order your copy of Who Not How: here.