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A few days ago I was listening to an audio programme by Tony Robbins (self-help author and motivational speaker) called Lessons in Mastery and although I’ve listened to it before, I felt like it was the first time I had heard this particular message.  It was about asking better questions in order to change your focus.  This is so easy once you begin practising it; it’s all linked to positive thinking which I do try whenever I can anyway.

A situation where I had the opportunity to practise this was yesterday, when I got the whole family out of bed to take me to the train station (as it would mean that I could leave slightly later than getting the bus down there).  Things were chaotic around the house as everyone was half asleep and I was so tired that I ended up tying a hair band in my daughter’s hair, got it caught and she ended up crying.  To cut a long story short, I made it to the station with a few minutes to spare only to find that the train was cancelled and the next one (in 35 minutes) was showing as delayed. 

I had the beginning of a headache and felt tired as it had been a long week; the station was packed and it didn’t look like I was going to get a seat.  I thought back at the programme I had listened to and saw this situation as a test to check if I had listened properly. 

I did started by thinking ‘Why was this train cancelled?  Now I’m going to be late for work!’.  I even said to someone next to me ‘I’ve rushed down here and got everyone out of bed!’.  Then I stopped and thought about how wrong my focus was.  I changed my question to: ‘How can I use this time?  I wonder if could get a seat somewhere in the station’.  And then as if by magic, a seat became available and I ran to sit down.  Still feeling tired and a bit grumpy, I rephrased my question ‘How can I use this time to my benefit?’. 

The answer was easy; for the first time this week I had brought my computer with me so that I could type up some notes on the train instead of catching up with sleep, so I got it out my bag and typed two blogs and edited another, all in half an hour  (something that would normally have taken me so much longer) and whilst I was doing it, I forgot all about the delayed train.  In fact when it arrived, I wished it had been delayed even more as I was in full swing.

As Tony Robbins says “Ask yourself better questions”.  Try it – I believe that you can apply this to any situation.

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Enjoy your weekend

Sandra
Freelance Writer and author of My OpenLeaf Journey
For other examples of my work please visit www.sandramadeira.com