Small change: always ask ‘why’ five times

As any parent will tell you, there can be no-one better at challenging your perspective than a small child.

Most children go through a phase of examining the world and asking “why is it like this… but why… but why?” And this can force parents to reappraise how and why they see things as they do (while being undeniably annoying at times).

Such ‘why’ questions are intuitive to the child and speak to a timeless truth: most things in life are complex, and are composed of multiple layers of facts, perceptions and/or experience, like Russian dolls. The fundamentals can take time to uncover.

It is sad that we often end up training such curiosity out of our children when we could all stand to learn from them. As uncomfortably childlike as it might feel, when examining a situation learn to ask ‘why’ no less than five times. Doing so will get you closer to the truth.

Something to consider: are we doing a good enough job of challenging our assumptions about what’s occurring?

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