“Welcome back to 21 questions that will change your life.
Question #10 is about inspiration. The word inspiration means to breathe into. It is the breath of inspiration that often moves us from inaction to action, from aimless wandering to purposeful intent.
Question #10 is… Who inspires you – people living or dead – and do you spend enough time with those people?
One of the great gifts of technology is the continuous access to amazing inspiration. There is nothing like live music, but being able to watch recordings of live music from all over the world going as far back and when recording became possible is extraordinary. And even before that, we could pick up a book and explore the greatest thinkers on any topic from any age. Again, astounding. Are you getting your daily dose of inspiration?
Today’s question is… Who inspires you – people living or dead – and do you spend enough time with those people?”
“Welcome back to 21 questions that will change your life.
Question #9 is about your precious time. How we spend our time says a lot about who we are. It says a lot about who we aspire to become. And how we spend our time reflects our values.
Question #9 is… Does the way you spend your time align with who and what you value most?
To answer this question, you have to be clear about what you value most. Most people have a sense, but it never hurts to put it down in writing. If you keep a schedule or calendar, take it out today and spend 15 minutes looking through the past week, month, year. Is it easy to see who and what you value most by looking at your schedule? Have you fallen into the habit of not putting your most important commitments on your schedule? Might be time to realign your schedule with who and what you value most.
Today’s question is… Does the way you spend your time align with who and what you value most?”
“Welcome back to 21 questions that will change your life.
Question #8 is about influence. We all have more influence than we think we do. It’s a mistake to think that that influence belongs only to the rich, famous, and powerful. Research shows that, on average, people influence 80,000 people in their lives.
Question #8 is… If you had the opportunity to share a message with millions of people, what would you say?
You are sharing a message with the world, but often it is unintentional and therefore not optimized for maximum impact. It’s time to get intentional about the message you are sharing with the world.
Today’s question is… If you had the opportunity to share a message with millions of people, what would you say?”
“Welcome back to 21 questions that will change your life.
Question #7 is about the limitations money places on us. Some of them are real and some of them are imagined. Some of the ways we feel financially limited are not as complete as we believe them to be. What do you have to do because of money? And what are you prevented from doing because of money?
Question #7: If money was no object what would your daily routine look like?
If you knew that by working hard and being financially responsible, you would always have all the money you needed to reasonably live, how would you live differently? And more specifically, how would you change your daily routine?”
“Welcome back to 21 questions that will change your life.
Question #6 is about the things you can’t live without. Most of us can live without actual materials things, but there are “things” we cannot live without. A bird cannot live without flying and a fish cannot live without swimming. These things are so much a part of who they are that their life is inextricably linked.
Question #6: What is something you have to do, because if you don’t your soul will start to die?
Musicians say they cannot live without music. Artists say they cannot live without art. Parents say they cannot live without their children. Inventors say they cannot live without the chance to invent again. My grandmother said she couldn’t live without her garden. Some can’t live without golf. Many of the saints could not live without prayer, reflection, silence, and solitude. And none of us can live without God. It is in Him that we live and move and have our being.
What do you need that you don’t have? What is it that you cannot live without? In what way is your soul withering and dying? And what can you do about it?”
“Welcome back to 21 questions that will change your life.
Question #5 is about the wisdom of paradoxes. Most of us have some form of to-do list that we never seem to get through. But much rarer is the NOT TO DO list, which most of us are in desperate need of.
Question #5: What needs to be on your NOT TO DO list?
Here are some ideas to consider… Putting off important tasks in favor of urgent tasks. Agreeing to do things out of guilt, ego, or misplaced obligation. Saying Yes when you know you should say NO. Trying to please everyone. Neglecting your legitimate needs.
Develop a short NOT TO DO list filled with items that keep you from thriving.”
“Welcome back to 21 questions that will change your life.
Question #4 is about how we skip around between the past, present, and future… and how much of the now of life we miss out on by worrying about the future or getting tripped up in the past.
Question #4: How much of each twenty-four-hour period do you spend in the past, present, and future?
A great memory of time with friends from a few years back is a great way to spend a few moments of any day. Ruminating endlessly about something you did in the past or something that happened to you isn’t a great way to spend the precious now.
How much time did you spend lost in the past or the future yesterday? 10 minutes? An hour? Longer? Spend an hour a day lost in this type of worry about the future and ruminations of the past and it adds up. An hour a day means you spend two weeks a year doing just that.
What would you rather spend those two weeks doing this year? Every time you feel the past or the future pulling at you in unhealthy ways, turn your mind to the things would you rather spend those two weeks doing.”
“Welcome back to 21 questions that will change your life.
Question #3 is about dissatisfaction. Most people think of dissatisfaction as a bad thing, but often it is just a messenger coming to deliver a message. And that message… well it might be “get your act together”, it might be “it’s time for a change”, it might be “stop procrastinating, you know what you need to do.”
Question #3: What are you dissatisfied with? And if a friend described your situation to you and asked for advice, how would you advise him/her?
Your dissatisfaction may be caused by something large or small and to some extent it doesn’t matter what is causing your dissatisfaction. What matters is how you respond to that dissatisfaction.
Your dissatisfaction is an invitation to change, to grow, to wake up. Will you accept the invitation? Now, that’s the question.”
“Have you ever heard someone say, “Religious people are stupid!” I’ve heard it many times, but someone said it in a conversation recently and I challenged myself to really think it through.
When we hear statements like this, our tendency is to either accept them as completely true or reject them as completely false.
In the case of the statement, “Religious people are stupid” people who oppose religion instantly accept it and religious people instantly reject. The problem with that is that we are just reacting based on bias, rather than thinking critically.
Are religious people stupid? No. Why am I so certain? Well, for one, the statement is a gross generalization, there are billions of people on the planet who fall into this category, and at the very least generalizations are never completely true.
Some people would be satisfied at this and return to the comfortable place in their mind, assured that religious people are not stupid.
But let’s go a little further.
Why? Because the further we go, the more compete our answer, the greater confidence we can have in our conclusions.
So, I asked myself two questions: Why do some people believe religious people are stupid? and Do religious people behave stupidly sometimes?
The main reason non-religious people believe religious people are stupid is found in their accusation that religious people are “narrow-minded.” But then I asked myself another question: How to non-religious people experience religious people’s so-called narrow-mindedness? Is it in rigorous discussion of important topics? I don’t think so. It’s through judgement, sometimes real and sometimes imagined.
The definition of stupid is “showing lack of intelligence or common sense.” So, this is the question that emerges: Is it stupid to be judgmental?
Jesus was clear in Matthew 7:1 when he said simply, “Do not judge.” He repeated this teaching many times throughout his public life.
I think a fairly good case could be made that judging other people shows a lack of intelligence and a lack of common sense.
But why did Jesus counsel us not to judge? Many reasons, but let’s look at a three. First, because it is unreasonable to ask someone to do something they are incapable of doing. It’s like asking a three-year-old to teach a post-graduate course on bio-ethics. When we judge other people we are pretending to be God, but we are eminently unqualified.
Next, because judging others interferes with healthy human relations (something God is intensely interested in). And finally, because judging other people poisons our hearts and complicates our souls.
All these lead to chaos and confusion and God prefers order and clarity.
But here is the big revelation I discovered in my recent exploration of this topic: Judgement makes empathy impossible.
What is empathy? It’s the ability to emotional understand what other people are experiencing and feeling. It’s the ability to see things from another person’s perspective. It’s the ability to imagine yourself in their situation. Or… and this is a big one… the awareness that for whatever reason you are unable to relate or connect or imagine what it feels like to be that person.
Empathy is so central to human relationships that God rigorously steers us away from anything that impedes it, and judgement seems to be at the top of that list.
Judgement makes empathy impossible.
I don’t know for sure if it is stupid to judge others, but I do know that empathy is a beautiful expression of emotional genius that we are all capable of and that we should all continue to develop.
Are religious people stupid? No. But we do behave stupidly sometimes, and when we do, we impede other people’s ability to experience God.
Judgment belongs to God and stealing from God is never a good idea.
The difference between God’s judgment and human judgement is that in His perfection God can judge and remain empathetic. His judgement and mercy are in perfect balance and unison. When human being become judgmental it shuts down our capacity our empathic functions, creating division and conflict.
There is no such thing as a highly evolved spiritual person who lacks empathy. Empathy is proof that the truth of religion has taken deep root in our lives.”
“There is a moment at the end of each day, when we lay our head on our pillows. Our bodies are tired, our minds relax, and our egos let go. It is a solitary moment. If we listen carefully in that moment, we will discover where we stand. That moment never lies. It reveals the meaning or meaninglessness of our lives.”
