Hello, friend! Welcome to a new post in The Creator’s Roulette! Today I am hosting author Josiane Fortin, author of Mine Your Brain: 288 Insightful Questions to Live Your Best Life. In this post, she is going to share the inspiration for her book and how she went about researching it. Let’s learn a bit about her first:
Josiane Fortin has been an avid reader since childhood. In elementary school, she had read all the books at her small school’s library. She reads fantasy, chick lit, romance, and science fiction.
Her passion for reading has led her to dream about becoming a published author.
Her first novel was published in 2013. Since then, she has published six novels and three non-fiction books, and one illustrated book for kids.
As a multipotentialite, she decided to combine her interest in self-development and productivity with her writing abilities to share what she has learned throughout the years.
On Finding Your Own Answers
A guest post by Josaine Fortin
My Inspiration for the Book
I am a self-development junkie. I started reading about productivity in high school and my interest has grown to other self-help topics.
One day, I heard in a podcast that I could be more successful by focusing on the right questions. This idea sparked my interest so much that I decided to learn how to become a more powerful thinker.
To reach my goal, I started putting together a list of questions that would lead me to find my own answers and push me outside of my comfort zone. My list grew over the years and helped me so much on my journey that I felt it should be shared with others.
I proceeded to self-publish this book with 288 with high-level questions. You can use them to propel your personal life and career.
How to Ask Powerful Questions
We often turn to others to figure out what we should do with our lives, but wouldn’t it make more sense to turn inward to find our own answers? Let’s not assume other people’s insights are better than ours. We must trust in our brain, in our capacity to make decisions that will serve us best.
Selecting the right questions will help you think at a higher level. So many people just keep on whining and accusing in their mind, “Why is this happening to me?” Even if you find one or more answers, they probably won’t be helpful at all.
For example, let’s say I got fired from my job. “Why is this happening to me?” would I like to know. Well, I could beat myself up by saying I was too stupid to keep my job, that nobody likes me, or that I’m simply no good at anything I do. The other option is to blame others by saying the boss was mean, the clients complained for no reasons, or the company just treats people as numbers.
You might be right, but what would that change to your situation? You are still jobless and you feel like crap. Let’s try another question, one that could bring you more success. “What kind of work would I like to do next?” or “Who could help me find a new job?” These questions are much more fruitful. They open up possibilities, they help you get creative in finding solutions.
An unfruitful question lets you spin in circles. This is the reason the quality of your questions influences the quality of your reasoning, and therefore, your results. When you focus on your next move, you don’t waste time looking at so-called failures. You keep going forward.
Focus on solutions rather than dig into the problem, meaning don’t look for what is wrong with you, or why this situation is happening. Instead, find questions that will help you figure out what to do from where you are right at this moment, no matter how difficult.
After you are done brainstorming, act on the best ideas. Soon enough, you will get results, and fine-tune if necessary.
Examples to Inspire You
To further illustrate this concept, I will share with you some questions from each of the sections in my book, Mine Your Brain.
- Upgrading Your Life: What minor changes can I implement today to get closer to my ideal lifestyle?
- Discovering Your Aspiration: If my boss gave me a year off to work in the community, what field would I choose?
- Growing Personally: What can I do to follow my intuition better?
- Reaching Your Goals: How can I structure my environment so that I am more likely to take action on my priorities?
- Forging Habits: What would be the best time of day to read a book chapter?
- Building Your Wealth: What do I need to learn to be debt-free?
- Improving Your Career: What is the scariest thing I have to do to 10x my income?
- Selling Effectively: What does my client need and how can I help them get what they want?
- Strengthening Relationships: What actions do I need to take to deepen my relationship with my partner?
- Loving Yourself: What actions do I need to take to love myself a bit more today?
- Healing Your Past: How can I rewrite my past to focus on the positives?
- Facing Challenges: What should I be learning thanks to this challenge?
- Solving Your Problems: What would I do if I knew what to do?
- Losing Weight: What do I need to do differently to see the results I want?
- Knowing Yourself: What brings me the most joy in my life right now?
How have you used questions to help you get clarity on something?
Thank you for hanging out with us today. You can connect with Josiane on TikTok, YouTube, her website or her podcast Self-Publishing Queen.
Cover image from unsplash.
Thanks for featuring me this week!