Edition #30

Read Time: 3 Minutes

Hi All!

Here is your weekly serving of practical guidance and inspiration to ensure you live your life with purpose. Feel free to forward this along to friends and family. Enjoy!

How to Ask ‘How’

Have you ever wanted to learn something new or get better at something and thought “I’ll google that.”

I bet you have.

So you fire up your browser and start typing “How Do I…” and then whatever that thing is.

But there is a major flaw to this question.

See, when you look online, what you are really asking is “How does someone do something.”

And sure you will get results giving you technical answers on how to improve at that skill.

Say you want to strike a soccer ball so you can beat the goalkeeper without it flying over the net.

Google will tell you to strike it in the middle of the ball with your weight leaning forward and follow through so you land on your shooting leg.

But until you go out and do it yourself, there is no way to answer ‘How do I strike a soccer ball.’

If you watch the greats, you will see they all have their own flavor — their own unique style about how to perform this one skill.

Maybe you aren’t into sports and can’t relate.

Good news - This applies to any field.

Take playing the guitar as another example.

Sure, you can go online and learn where to put your fingers and what strings to strum to play the D chord.

But then you need to pick up a guitar and put your own spin on it.

Jimi Hendrix or Eric Clapton didn’t aim to wow people by asking ‘How have others done it?’

They might be playing the same chords but their unique style shines through.

Too often when we ask ‘How do I…’ we want to know how others have done it so we don’t make a mistake.

But do it the way others have already done it lacks originality and steers you toward the status quo.

But that’s not what you are looking for.

You’re looking to do things differently.

To do things your way.

If you want to get the most out of asking How, then you must ask both of these questions:

1) How have others done it?

It’s not a bad question to get started.

You will learn foundational things about your desired skill.

You can piggyback off concepts that people have already figured out.

You can ask ‘Why did someone do something this way?’ to dig deeper on the process.

This step can teach you.

But the problem is most people stop after they have asked this question.

They simply try to adopt what has already been done.

You need to go a step further and ask:

2) How do I WANT to do it?

By asking this question, you make it personal.

It’s the only way to adapt the ‘how’ to yourself instead of adopt ‘how’ others have done it.

No one can answer this question for you.

Not Google, not YouTube, not a blog, or a dictionary, or your wise old grandpa.

No one can answer this question…

Except for you.

‘How it’s done YOUR WAY’ will only come through trying, doing, and exploring.

So, the next time you go searching — Don’t go searching for the right way.

Go searching for your way.

Words of Wisdom

You can complement this weekly newsletter with short reminders, ideas, and thoughts about personal development by following me on 𝕏.

Thanks for reading! And always remember…

Slow and steady. Never Idle.

Until next week,

Austin Sargent