I don’t know about you, but I love asking questions. It’s an opportunity to either learn more about something or someone. Questions teach us and help us learn. They provide us with clarity and a better sense of understanding.

Questions are powerful because they initiate thought and more often than not, trigger a response.

Asking questions get us answers and stimulate solutions. They make us think.

There is a one specific question, in fact, it’s a one word question that when asked, can be the difference between getting what you want and not. A powerful, specific one word question. So, what is it? Simple…..

HOW?

Take whatever it is you’re looking to do or accomplish and and ask yourself, how can you make it happen?

How can I lose weight?

How can I have more confidence?

How can I travel more?

How can I get start my own business?

How can I travel more?

How can I pay off debt?

How can I save more money?

I remember when I first got accepted into college. The good news was, I got accepted into college. The bad news, I had no idea how I was going to pay the yearly tuition price tag which was quite hefty.

If my immediate first thoughts would have been, “I can’t afford the tuition”, I would have been deflated and my thoughts would have spiraled into a negative nose dive thinking about how I couldn’t afford to go to college.

Instead of saying, I can’t afford to go to college or it’s too expensive or there’s nothing I can do about it, I instead began asking myself…. How can afford to go to college? How can I make it happen? These type of thoughts and questions stimulate our minds to think, to think creatively, to think outside the box and come up with solutions and answers we otherwise would not have arrived at if we simply did not ask, How?

In case you’re wondering how I did end up making it happen and going to college, I found more student loans, grants, and scholarships I wasn’t even aware existed and probably would have never found them if I hadn’t asked the question on how? How can I go? How can I make it happen. I also have to give many thanks here to my Mom and Grandma who also were part of my solution and helped pave the way for me to make it happen.

From now on, consider the following:

Replace: I Can’t.

With: How Can I?

Replace: I can’t lose weight.
With: How can I lose weight?

Replace: I can’t afford it?
With: How can I afford it?

Replace: I can’t meet anyone.
With: How can I meet more people?

Replace: I can’t be patient.
With: How can I be more patient?

Let’s be honest with ourselves and not confuse, “I Can’t” with “I Don’t Want To or Chose Not To”. There’s a big difference between the two and it takes being honest with ourselves to make that distinction.

Now, let’s apply this to you. What is it you want? Think about it. Don’t hold back. Whatever it may be. What is you you want that would make you happy? What is it you want that you think there’s no way you can  have or achieve?

Write out a list of all the things you want and once you have them written down, for each one start asking yourself….

How can I can make this happen? What do I need to do? Who can help me?

You don’t need to have the perfect answer to each of these questions, in fact, the answers you first come up with may not be the right ones at all but that’s OK. It’s not a matter of getting the right answers out of the gate, they will come. It’s about getting started, taking that first step. Putting the wheels in motion. Stimulating your mind to think, to create, to come up with answers and solutions.

One word. One question. Try it. I assure you, you’ll soon find yourself having more of things you want in your life.