Will I use this situation as a catalyst to grow and evolve or will I use it to beat myself up?
–Debbie Ford
The Right Questions, HarperCollins, 2004

Am I standing in my power or am I trying to please another?
–Debbie Ford
The Right Questions, HarperCollins, 2004

Will this choice bring me long-term fulfillment or will it bring me short-term gratification?
—-Debbie Ford, The Right Questions, HarperCollins, 2004

Will this choice propel me toward an inspiring future or will it keep me stuck in the past?
–Debbie Ford, The Right Questions, HarperCollins, 2004

by ken winston caine

We’re always told to think outside the box. But it’s about time someone spoke up for the box. Because, paradoxically, thinking inside a box can spark creativity, not squelch it. So maybe you don’t need to think out of the box. Maybe you just need a new one to think in.
– Dan Heath and Chip Heath, December 2007 Fast Company

Reconsider the absolute boundaries.

Define them.

Reconsider the ultimate objective. The ultimate objectives for all concerned.

And set a goal to vastly and remarkably improve upon the status quo.

Define cool.

And, based on that, redefine your box.

Once you know the rules, find new (more…)

by ken winston caine

The questions you ask and choose to explore shape the outcomes you achieve. The trick is to ask powerful questions.

They cut to the chase. They move you forward quickly and smartly.

Asking powerful questions is at the heart of “coaching” as it was developed by Thomas Leonard. And I’ve been collecting lists of powerful questions, or coaching questions, for 11 years — ever since I was first exposed to Leonard’s approach.

But simply being armed with a mile-long list of powerful questions does not make one a good coach. Or guarantee you magnificent, rapid, sustainable personal success. The good coach and the smart achiever know how to ask the right type of question at exactly the right moment.

Better, I think, to understand what a powerful question is, so that you can instinctively pose one when it is needed, than to have a long list of questions to sort through. (Though a list is valuable.)

So what is a powerful question?

The best explanation I have come across comes not from the world of life coaching or business coaching or corporate coaching, but from pioneers of The World Cafe process, Juanita Brown and David Isaacs.

They write, on their website, that a powerful question has eight defining characteristics: (more…)

by ken winston caine

Do projects always take longer to complete than you expect?

I know they often do for me.

Big Idea Coach Jim M. Allen has three cool tips for fixing that. I’ll share one of them here. He says, (more…)

by ken winston caine

What if love is all there really is, and everything else is an illusion?

What if love is the only thing that is real, and everything else is a distracting illusion?

What if love is the glue that binds the universe together… Has no beginning, has no end… No alpha, No omega, Simply is, always has been and always will be?

And what if your single highest purpose — and most difficult challenge — is to find love, connect with love, express love, be love, resonate at the frequency of love in every situation you encounter?

Ask yourself:

If I knew this was true, how would it change things?

Even if you don’t believe this is true, pretend for a moment that it is.

And ask yourself: (more…)

Gotta love this:

We have not succeeded in answering all your problems. The answers we have found only serve to raise a whole set of new questions. In some ways we feel we are as confused as ever, but we believe we are confused on a higher level and about more important things.

– from Gail Smith via Karen Krooskos Bowers