Reflections On Two Hundred Episodes
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It’s been said that better questions lead us naturally to better answers, and that it’s in not knowing that we open the doorway to knowing. I’m Scott Lennox and you’re listening to The Beautiful Question, a consideration of things that truly matter in a complex world.
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Come celebrate this week’s Beautiful Question with me. I consider my two hundredth episode to be something of a personal milestone.
Join me as we take a brief look back and then lean into the future, asking even better questions.
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photo: TeamOne
This week’s episode will be shorter than most. As I pondered what to share with you, I briefly considered opening with a bit of fanfare, but that’s not consistent with what The Beautiful Question is about. It’s quieter than that. And yet, powerful things can happen when we commit to something and stay with it, step-by-step! The truth of that came home to me as I produced these podcasts week after week. Looking back, I’m still surprised by what I accomplished.
When I began writing, recording, and producing them here at HeartRock, I had three primary goals in mind: To live as vibrantly and meaningfully as possible as I connected with you; To ask even better questions than I’d been asking; and To encourage listeners to ask meaningful questions of their own.
Four years and two hundred episodes later, those goals have deepened and grown stronger and your feedback has been encouraging.
Decades ago, as I studied what led to the success of several Nobel laureates, I became fascinated by the process many of them used in conversation with their peers. After agreeing on a specific period of time, whether it was a few minutes or more than an hour, they would intentionally refrain from making declarative statements and speak only in the interrogative. Asking questions in that way led them to other questions which led to still others.
With that focus, they gained insights and were led to discoveries they would have come to any other way. That’s one of the reasons I open every episode by saying that better questions lead us naturally to better answers and that it’s in not knowing that we open the door to knowing.
We’re born curious. The intuitive and often elegant process of asking questions is built into us. And when we follow that natural curiosity, even a little bit, we can be taken beyond what we know with our everyday thinking minds. If we’re fortunate, we’re taken to that place where language fails, and we step into the silence of inner knowing. That’s a rare gift in the rush of today’s hyper-busy culture.
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Several beautiful questions stay at the top of my list and I find myself asking them over and over and over again. I’m aware that they are lofty ones, but if I’m not willing to engage with life at that level, what’s the point of my being here?
Here are a few of them.
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“Ancestors by Gavin Luke, Courtesy of Epidemic Music”
“What truly matters right this moment?”
“How can I live as vibrantly as possible?”
“What does it mean to live authentically?”
“What am I passionate about?”
“What are my gifts and strengths?”
“What are my weaknesses?”
“What do I know beyond question?”
“What do I want and what do I truly need?”
“How can I get out of my own way?”
“How can I be more loving and accepting?”
“How can I free myself of judgment?”
“Where did I get the rules I’m following?”
“As I follow them, what are those rules producing?”
“What does it mean to be fully present?”
“What happens when I relax and let go?”
“What will be my legacy when I am gone?”
As I continue asking these questions, others arise and quite often, clarity reveals itself. That alone makes the asking worthwhile.
If the present really matters, and if future matters to us at all—both in the short term and in the long term—it will be our well-considered questions that help us to open the doors we need to open and shut the doors that need to be forever closed.
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The Beautiful Questions I offer this week are the ones I would ask if we were sitting face to face, perhaps over a meal or a cup of coffee. There are seven of them.
One: What are some of the questions you regularly ask yourself?
Two: Where are those questions leading you?
Three: What things can you do to get out of your own way?
Four: What drives you and what’s holding you back?
Five: If I were to get to know you over time—the real you—what would I discover that no one else knows?
Six: What do you want more than you want anything else?”
Seven: What are you willing to do to have what you want?
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I’m sure these questions would lead us to hours of discussion and that time would slip away as we continued. If you find it useful, write and tell me about your answers. I’m always willing to listen.
As I say each week,
My Light with your Light
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Thank you for joining me in these podcasts as we keep doing what we can to respond to life in increasingly effective ways. As always, I’m open to your comments and feedback.
You can be further inspired by visiting my friends at Kosmos Journal. That’s K O S M O S Journal. Their mission is to inform, inspire, and engage global transformation in harmony with all life. You can easily find them online at Kosmos Journal dot O R G.
And at thebeautifulquestion.com, you can read the illustrated transcript of each podcast as you listen. You’ll also find an archive of all previous podcasts, including episodes three and four, guided relaxation audios that can help you practice letting go on a daily basis.
If you find these podcasts useful, don’t hesitate to share them or tell others about them. That’s a great way of helping me get a voice of calm and collaboration and balance and encouragement out into the world.
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I’m Scott Lennox, and this has been The Beautiful Question.
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The Beautiful Question is a One Light production, written, produced, and engineered by Scott Lennox at HeartRock Studios in Fort Worth, Texas, as a way of paying forward to life, being fully present, becoming better engaged with things that truly matter in a complex world, and committing to a healthier future for all of us.