Questions are the most powerful tool you can use to clarify situations and solve problems. Today, we're talking about finding different sources for questions that require you to pause and think.
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In today's episode, we're asking four questions that cause us to pause and reflect in order to answer.
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Happy Saturday. We have four questions for you on today's episode of Developer Team. My name is Jonathan Cottrell. My goal on the show is to help driven developers like you find clarity, perspective, and purpose in their careers. Questions are one of the most powerful things that you can use to find motivation and to find novel ways of looking at situations. Especially if you can apply questions that are not necessarily already on your mind. Questions that don't come easily. Questions that are not obvious. If you can find questions that you can apply to a given situation. To a given scenario. To your life or to the project that you're working on. Those questions can help illuminate different angles on the subject that you're discussing. On the subject that you're dealing with. And so it's useful to find sources of good questions. This isn't just something that you would necessarily Google. Of course, you may have Googled to land on this episode. But I'd encourage you to surround yourself with people. Who are willing to ask you questions. And to be clear, we're not talking about simple questions like. How long is that going to take? Or how is everything going? These are questions that you get asked by everyone in your life. Instead, try to think about questions that require a pause. Questions that you can't answer immediately. They take time to consider. And sometimes. You may not have an answer at all. Sometimes these are the best kinds of questions to ask yourself. Because the question will linger in your mind. So I'm going to share with you four questions. And since we're doing this on a weekend. Hopefully you have time to consider these questions. To ponder them. Rather than being swept away into your daily work. Perhaps you can think about these throughout your day today. So let's dive into the first question. What is one thing you've changed your mind about in the last three to five years? And what do you believe today that you're not sure you will believe in ten years? This is kind of a two-part question of course. One is backward looking. Trying to identify something that you believed before. Or some behavior that you adhered to before. That you no longer adhere to. And the boundaries that I want you to put on this question. Are boundaries of perception. Something that you expected three to five years ago. That has occurred in a different way for example. Or maybe a belief that you held very strongly. That now you don't hold at all. And then looking forward into the future. What beliefs do you hold today. That you may not hold. In. Ten years. What perception do you have today. That you believe will shift within the next ten years. And it's important to do it in this order. Because we are much more likely. To identify something that has changed in the past. Than we are to expect something to change in the future. We believe that we've kind of arrived. At our final location. That the beliefs we hold now. We will hold for the rest of our lives. The preferences that we have today. We'll have on our last day. But if you start by priming yourself. And thinking about the change that you've gone through recently. In the last three to five years. Then it should make a lot of intuitive sense. That you might experience change. In the future as well. What you'll probably notice. Is that your perspective of yourself three to five years ago. May feel like you have. A lot of wisdom. In hindsight. That back then. You were silly. That you didn't know what you were doing. But it's unlikely. That you feel that you're silly today. That you feel that you don't know what you're doing today. But in three to five years. Looking back. You might have the same feeling about yourself. Today. As you have about yourself. Three to five years ago now. And the reason this exercise is so helpful. Is that it reminds us. That our perception. Our beliefs. And the way we operate in the world. Is fluid. We're learning. And this kind of question. Reminds us to remain. In a position of learning. In a position of flexibility. And humility. Let's go on to the second question. What is one thing you expect to try. And fail at. Today. What can you identify. Upstream. From that failure. That you might do. Differently. To prevent it. For example. Let's say you're working on a code base. And. You've dedicated yourself. To actually practicing. Test driven development. You believe in the merits of this practice. And nobody has to convince you. That it's a good idea. And yet. When you walk into work. Each day. You feel the pressure. To skip. To skip over the tests. And write the code directly. This is something that you try. To change. But each day. For whatever reason. You still walk away. Having not written the test. That you wish you had written. So. You may feel that this. Try and fail. Pattern. Is now the norm. But it's worth inspecting. What causes this pattern to be. Repeated. And. Is there any way. That you might. Interrupt it. The goal of this question. Is to avoid the mantra. Of try harder. Trying harder. Has its limits. Not only in the literal sense. That there's only so hard. You can try to do something. But also in the behavioral sense. That trying harder. Is very rarely the long term fix. Most of the time. The answer. Is in your environment. The things that you want to do. You are prevented from doing. For some reason. You may have sufficient energy. Sufficient motivation. To do these things. But there's some kind of barrier. So I want you to focus. On what barriers. What upstream barriers. Are you facing. To being successful at the thing. That you normally fail at. Now to be clear. We're talking about something. That you can accomplish. Broadly speaking. We're talking about willpower tasks. Things that you can do. But for whatever reason. You're not adhering to those things. We're going to take a quick break. To talk about today's sponsor Linode. And then we're going to come back. And talk about the other two questions. That I have for you today. Today's episode is sponsored by Linode. It's the weekend. And you might have a weekend project. That you're working on. And you haven't decided. How you're going to deploy it yet. Whether you're working on that personal project. Or maybe on Monday. You're going to be managing. Your enterprise's infrastructure. Linode has the pricing. The support. And the scale. That you need to take your project. To the next level. They have 11 data centers worldwide. Meaning latency is going to be. Basically in the floor. Including the newest data center. In Sydney Australia. With enterprise grade hardware. S3 compatible storage option. And their next generation network. Linode delivers the performance you expect. At a price that you don't. For example. Their nano plan starts as low as $5 a month. With that you get root access. To a Linux machine in the cloud. And that machine has native SSD storage. And it's on a 40 gigabit internal network. With industry leading processors. Beyond this incredible hardware. That you get access to. You also get access. To the tools that Linode provides. For example their revamped cloud manager. Built on an open source single page app. Go to cloud.linode.com. To check that out. You'll also get access to. Linode's API. That is version 4. And a Python CLI. So anything you can imagine doing. To automate your server management processes. You can do with these API tools. They have dedicated CPU plans. They have GPU plans as well. Block storage. Object storage. You can do one click installs. For things like WordPress. Lamp stack. Game servers. Go check it out. Head over to linode.com. Slash developer T. And you can do one click installs. And use the promo code. Developer T 2020. That's all one word. Developer T 2020. At checkout. That's going to give you $20 worth of credit. If you are a new customer. Go and check it out. Linode.com. Slash developer T. Thanks again to Linode. For sponsoring today's episode. I have two more questions for you. In today's episode. And hopefully you've enjoyed this. Kind of taking a step back. Away from your software development work. Thinking about. These. These ways of thinking. Of course. All of this applies. To your job. On a day to day basis. You can think about. The habits that you are forming. And the kinds of things that you. Beliefs that you held about software. Three to five years ago. The kinds of beliefs that you hold now. That you might not hold in a decade from now. So all of this is 100% applicable. At a very concrete level. But the wonderful thing about these questions. And these kinds of questions. Is that you can apply them as lenses. And you can apply them as lenses. On almost any area of your life. And hopefully over the weekend. As you listen to this episode. You're able to do that. So let's jump into question number three. What moment can you not afford. To miss out on today? What moment can you not afford. To miss out on today? I've chosen these words very specifically. Recently on this podcast. We talked about your time. Being an account. With an unknown balance. And that every day. You're spending at a constant rate. You're spending that time. And you don't know when that balance is going to run out. And so. It makes sense to ask this question. Of what moment can you not afford. To miss out on. There is going to be a moment today. Even if you make that moment happen yourself. And that's a critical point. There can be. A moment today. That is too important. For you to miss out on. And that's a critical point. That is too important. For you to miss out on. And what are you going to do about this? If you can identify a moment. That you don't want to miss out on. How can you make sure. That you are fully present. For that moment. We'll ask kind of a bonus question here. This is call us three and a half. Question number three and a half. What is most likely. To cause you. To miss out on that moment. What is. The culprit. What is the. The distraction. Or. The inefficiency. What will take. That moment away. From you. Today. In your daily work. This moment might be. Interacting with a co-worker. Or it might be. A moment of. Intense focus. These are moments that are incredibly valuable as well. So it's important to identify. Those moments. Before they happen. If possible. And also. Give yourself. Some kind of cue. For when they are happening. As well. Notice. In that moment today. What is likely to pull you away from it. What is causing that moment. To be shortened. Or otherwise removed. From your life. And finally. We'll come to the fourth question. What is something that you've been putting off. That you can take action on. Today. What is something that you've been putting off. You've been procrastinating. And procrastinating on it. But you can take action on it today. I challenge you. Even if that action is small. Even if. It's an incomplete. Step. Even if it's a half step. Towards whatever that thing is. That you've been procrastinating on. Encourage you to take. That half step. Today. Once again. This absolutely applies. In your work life. Maybe you've been meaning. To go back. And document. The weird way. That you did that thing. In that file. Or maybe you've been meaning. To reach out to a co-worker. That you feel like. Is in need of some support. Or maybe this is as simple. As doing a chore. That you just haven't taken the time. To do. These kinds of actions. Are a type of self-care. Or mental hygiene. These are things that hang around. In our minds. And we can easily beat ourselves up. Over. The guilt. Of procrastination. And if we even take the smallest step. It's easy to feel. The opposite. Of that guilt. A sense of victory. A sense of momentum. But not just because we're addicted to progress. Instead. We're celebrating this kind of momentum. This kind of action that we take. Because we have chosen. To do so. Making a choice. Is an act. Of autonomy. And having that feeling. That you have made a choice. That you're proud of. Can give you a sense of freedom. And ease. In your life. Thank you so much for listening. To today's episode. Thank you again to Linode. For sponsoring today's episode. Head over to linode.com. Slash developer T. To get started today. You can get a $20 credit. By using the code developer T 2020. That's all one word. Developer T 2020. At. Checkout. I'd love to hear from you. As you think through these questions. Over the weekend. Or in the future. If you encounter this episode. And it's not a weekend. No matter what the day is. Please reach out. And share the kinds of thoughts. That you're having in response. To these questions. On Twitter at. At developer T. Or you can email me. At developer T. At gmail.com. Today's episode was produced. By Sarah Jackson. My name is Jonathan Cottrell. And until next time. Enjoy your tea. At developer T. At developer T. At developer T.