Fast-forward to the end to get the three-step method to ask more valuable questions.

Answers are the solutions we seek to our problems. We spend most of our lives pursuing these and often depend on the wisdom of others to guide us to them. It is in our search for answers that we learn the qualities of patience and persistence.

Some of us spend a lifetime trying to find answers, and others find them right away. Even so, the answers to life are things we are always bumping into and expanding on.

What I am more concerned with is the essence of those answers we seek. In the time of great Greek philosophers, we saw the process of teleological reasoning. The word teleological comes from the Greek word telos, which means the end or purpose.

Aristotle adopted this type of thinking in his political discussions, and much of science today is against it. After all, we have outgrown the idea that everything must have a purpose or goal to it. Now with our great discoveries, we believe that an end is not necessary.

Funny enough, we also have to teach children out of this way of thinking. As children have curious minds, they begin to ask why for everything and seek to find the end of all things.

However, for the answers that we seek in our own personal life, often this method of thinking is fitting. And it is through using this method of thinking that we can lead more successful lives.

The Telos of Answers

The questions we ask are just as important as the answers we receive from them. We are taught from a young age to value solutions more due to our schooling system. After all, students who got the answers were treated better.

However, answers only flow from the question asked, and questions are the root of all the answers. The answers we do not have in the world are thanks to questions still yet to be explored.

Our answers serve us nothing and do not even exist unless the right questions are brought forward. Answers within themself have no value to us, yet many of us spend so much time concerned by them. For the most part, our organisations are run this way too. We place the most competent person (person who can answer the most) at the top.

We see those who ask many questions as incompetent and the dumbest in the room. Thanks to our value for answers, people lose interest or are scared to ask questions. Instead, people want to be the person who has a tonne of answers.

However, it is our questions that give our answers meaning. And therefore, it is the telos we must all consider when we seek the answers we desire.

How Questions Are Linked to Our Success

Success in life is not something that comes easy. Most of us have to work hard at it, and we are hit with setbacks along the way. However, the answers we need for the success we desire are rooted in the type of questions we ask.

Things like money and happiness are dependent on the types of questions we present. Too many of us do not value the questions we seek to find answers to. Instead, we run straight for answers that seem plausible or satisfying. That is why we see many trying to answer their money problems with side hustles they have no passion for.

Asking questions like, “how to become rich?” will lead us to answers of course. But the value of this question is low. It is not specific enough, and it can lead to vague answers. To truly value our questions, we have to take time to form them.

We must think about how we want our answer to take form rather than what we want the answer to be.

Some of us are so desperate for answers we do not even care about the form the answer comes in. This is why we have people who know nothing about finance providing young people with advice. They exist not because of their expertise, but simply because people do not value their questions enough to care how the answer takes form.

If you think of the most important questions you have had in life, your answers have probably taken form richly and insightfully. More than likely, your answer also came from a source that was respectable and trusted.

Good questions cause us to treat our answers with care, and it is this attitude to our answers that bring about our success. By valuing our questions, we get valuable answers that lead us down great paths.

Learning How to Ask Questions

It is only recently that I have started to pay attention to the questions I am asking. Through using teleological reasoning, I have started generating more valuable questions.

Do this by following my simple three-step method:

What is the end benefit to yourself for the question you are posing?

By asking yourself this, you can identify the real reason why you are asking the question. For example, someone who asks “how to become rich?” may not want extreme wealth. Instead, they may just need a way out of their debt, which is a different and more specific question.

What is the end benefit for others for the question you are posing?

Asking this question helps you put your question into a general form. By thinking about the repercussions that the potential answer could have, you will value the question more.

How do you want the answer to take its form?

Finally, this is a follow-up question to step 2. By asking this, you start to get a grasp of what you are looking for. You niche down the answer to your question, which further helps define the telos.

Closing Thought

In a world where answers are everywhere, people are starting to devalue questions. Google appears to have an answer for everything, and our questions seem useless when a search engine can help us specify what we want.

However, it is the process of forming a question that brings about better answers. And if we all took a bit more care in the questions we posed, just maybe, we would have better answers in the world to share.