deepstash
Beta
Deepstash brings you key ideas from the most inspiring articles like this one:
Read more efficiently
Save what inspires you
Remember anything
The Focusing Question: How to Find Your ONE Thing
5
Key Ideas
Save all ideas
The Question Is More Important Than The Answer
The best answers in the world have no value whatsoever if they belong to the wrong questions.
All of us have goals and desires, and to move towards them we look for answers. We fail to realize that the answers are not as important as the questions we can ask.
128 SAVES
721 READS
Searching For Better Questions
- Finding the right questions is not easy because we don’t know what we don’t know.
- Goals don’t come with blueprints and even if they do, there is always a fitment issue as each life is unique.
- We need to create a personal blueprint to map our life and work, moving us towards success and accomplishments.
106 SAVES
505 READS
The Focusing Question
The focusing question which is essentially a combination of the most important questions, goes like this: What is the one thing that I can do, so that by doing it, everything will be either easier or unnecessary?
This question looks at the smallest thing that will impact the biggest thing.
130 SAVES
458 READS
Life Is Both Easy And Hard
Normally we think we are productive and working hard, but in reality, we may be just confused, busy doing urgent things on our to-do list that may not be important or impactful for our main goal.
The focusing question removes the clutter and makes us focus on the one thing that is aligned to our main purpose, making us avoid pseudo-work.
124 SAVES
382 READS
Simplification Instead Of Addition
Many of our activities are unnecessary but we don’t know it. If instead of asking ourselves what is to be done, we change the question to what is that we can simplify, or subtract from our work.
This puts the focus on the essential activities while eliminating the ones which look like work but are not helpful in any way.
115 SAVES
475 READS
SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
7
Key Ideas
“Few things are sadder than encountering a person who knows exactly what he should do, yet cannot muster enough en..."
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Intense focus
It happens only when:
- You define your goals clearly
- You have the capacity to complete the tasks necessary to achieve them.
You can't blame technology
While endless scrolling on your phone is a symptom of the problem, it is not the root cause of why you find it hard to focus.
To learn how to focus, you must adopt new skills as well as understand the most common causes of distraction.
6
Key Ideas
Finding Your Creative Genius Takes Years
Most groundbreaking work takes at least a full decade or more to reveal itself.
For example, one study found that of 500 famous musical pieces, nearly all of them were ...
Give Yourself Permission to Create Junk
Successful writers do not write elegant first drafts, nor do they feel wildly enthusiastic and confident.
Creating something useful and compelling means you have to permit yourself to let the inspiration flow. You will write a lot of junk but can then sift through it to find bits and pieces of brilliance here and there.
Create on a Schedule
The act that will uncover creative genius is by forcing yourself to create regularly and on a schedule, not just create when you feel inspired.
The best thing you can do is to do a huge volume of work. Creative genius becomes visible when you work consistently to get the average ideas out of the way.
3
Key Ideas
Hating Ourselves
"I hate myself" is a common self-talk. You really are your worst enemy, however painful this may feel.
Feelings of self-hatred and unworthiness are felt by a majority of people. E...
Effects of Self-Hatred
Self-hatred gives us negative thoughts, telling us we are unattractive, lack confidence, and are generally unworthy. If we listen to it, we give it power. We then create a negative shield around us and will have trouble accepting love and compassion.
The internal negative breeding will attract further negativity in our lives and relationships.
How To Stop Hating Yourself
- Pay attention to your triggers by reflecting on your thoughts and actions, identifying your inner negative talk.
- Question and challenge your negative thoughts, and detach from them.
- Start saying positive affirmations to yourself to counter the negativity.
- Reframe your negative thoughts by changing your point of view.
- Spend time with positive people who fill you with joy.
- Seek professional help as this may be a mental health issue.