To overcome status quo thinking, your desire to learn and grow must be greater than the desire to protect your ego.
My wife and I recently launched a new business to seize a huge untapped opportunity in the energy sector in Virginia and 12 other states and the District of Columbia. Everybody uses gas and electricity, and the chance to reduce our residential energy expenses while also helping others save money on their electricity and gas bills was simply too good to pass up. In less than 2 months, we’ve already made back our start-up costs thanks to a great group of business partners who are mentoring us as we grow our business. What I love about my wife is her willingness to take calculated risks because to achieve real quantifiable success in life, you have to find ways to buy back your time. Unfortunately, most people are living within their limitations and stuck in status quo thinking that blocks their ability to live beyond their imagination. So I challenged myself to identify a simple strategy or tip that I could share to help people overcome this dream killing syndrome. Literally the answer was revealed to me on page 200 of a book I’m reading.
The Law of Curiosity
In John Maxwell’s book The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth, chapter 12 is the Law of Curiosity. He starts the chapter by saying “growth is stimulated by asking why” and also shares this quote by George Bernard Shaw – “Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not”. I know from extensive research and experience that you can change your life by changing the questions you ask, and as a result, in my management consulting practice, we teach managers and their employees how to ask powerfully effective questions. John’s chapter on the topic revealed 3 brilliant questions I’d never considered, and as I reflected on them, I saw the genius in them because they specifically attack status quo thinking.
3 Questions that Can Compound Your Success
We are creatures of habits and routines, and most people have developed the habit of scarcity thinking. So even if circumstances are causing pain and suffering, many will live with their challenging circumstances rather than make changes to improve things.
Here’s a provocative question – Why wait till things get tough or challenging?
What about the things that are working for you? Have you ever thought about fixing what ain’t broken? I’m a growth-focused person, so continuous change comes natural to me, yet these 3 questions from John Maxwell are a brilliant way to create awareness of a need for a plan to keep growing.
So let’s put the questions to the test. Think of something that is working right now for you. Then ask yourself….
- If it ain’t broken, how can you make it better?
- If it ain’t broken, when is it likely to break in the future?
- If it ain’t broken, how long will it serve as the world changes?
Are you as startled by the power of those questions as I was when I read them for the first time? By honestly and candidly answering them, you will be forced out of status quo / scarcity thinking and pushed into an abundance mindset. That is absolute genius, and that is why I am also a certified coach, speaker, and trainer with the John Maxwell team!
While my wife and I didn’t have these questions at our disposal when we were evaluating the energy business opportunity, they would have given us the template for a highly effective evaluation process. In fact, we would have arrived at the same conclusion only a lot faster and even more confidently.
If you want to stop living within your limitations and start living beyond your imagination, start by asking those 3 questions.
And if you’re like everybody else who uses gas and electricity, ask yourself – would you like to save money on your residential and commercial energy bills? If the answer is “yes”, email me at splove@ictscorp.com, and I’ll show how to do it faster than you could order a McDonald’s Happy Meal.
The Floor is Yours
What additional tips and strategies for overcoming the status quo to live the life you want to live have you used? Please share them in the comments below.
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