Part 4 – Asking Questions
There’s a common cultural misconception about why we ask questions. We believe that we ask questions because we don’t know something, and we want to find it out. This misconception about questions can lead to difficulties. The problem is we are mainly concerned about information gathering but are reluctant to ask questions because we believe it reveals our ignorance. We believe that not knowing something is a weakness. So, to appear strong, informed, and in control, we don’t ask many questions. The difficulties with this mindset and these behaviors should be obvious.
We do need to ask questions to gain knowledge, but there is also another important reason. We ask questions to seek TRUTH, TRUTH about a situation or TRUTH about another person, or TRUTH about ourselves. Facts, evidence, and testimony are all important ways to gain knowledge, but the TRUTH we need to gain to become a OneTRUTH Leader is a deeper level of knowledge. The great TRUTH-teller is feelings. It is a deeper understanding of what is occurring.
To learn, grow, and become better, we instinctively know that we will have to go to a deeper level of awareness and understanding. We know that our personal growth won't happen on its own. It will require our active participation. It will require taking specific action based on the answers to question we must ask ourselves and answer as honestly as possible. We know these things in our guts, they are things that our minds can’t fully pick up on without a deeper level of introspection.
Four questions answered with great thought and honesty help us to get to this level of inquiry:
?Here is the bottom line. I previously said that OneTRUTH Leaders are change leaders, but they must also become thought leaders to be effective. There are many things that we can build upon but there are also many that we must learn new ways of doing, we cannot continue to do everything the same way we have always done them and expect different results. We must choose change, or it will choose for us without any say in the matter.
The difficult task is choosing what to change and how to make it happen. Only the courageous commit to change and follow through. I believe everyone is designed to be courageous; some just choose to live a default life and not invest in changing and growing. You can tell if someone is like that when they say things like, "It is what it is" in a defeated tone.
This is the final TRUTH of OneTRUTH Leaders.
Everyone has it within them to become one. It starts with self-examination, continues with defining your purpose, and finding the real power within each of us. We next need to identify what in the world needs to change, and to take the steps necessary to bring about change. This relies on getting to the actual need, asking the right questions, in the right way, and following with active listening.
From this we devise a plan of action to bring about the necessary change. But a plan alone does not create the solution; we must act, even if we do not yet have a full plan of action. Continuing, there are specific methods and processes that can be applied to help move things forward. These can be studied and applied as needed.
Finally, OneTRUTH Leaders are agents of change and of thought. They cannot think in the same way or do things as they have always been doing. They seek TRUTH as a guide, testing the sources. In experiencing things in new ways, they go beyond asking why to ask ‘why-not?’.
They keep asking until they discover things they may not have even thought of or imagined without some deep introspection. When they get there, OneTRUTH Leaders take things one step further; they trust their guts, their feelings and deep-seated beliefs in asking four additional questions to learn, grow, and become better, instinctively knowing that they can go to an even deeper level of awareness and understanding. A OneTRUTH Leader is someone who seeks and applies the authority of God acting in the world seeking the OneTRUTH of God.