Podcast: 7 Essential Questions To Ask Yourself In 2015

by Todd Henry | The Accidental Creative

As 2015 approaches, here are seven key questions you can ask to help you have your best and most productive year yet.

Update: By request, below are the seven questions.

Aimlessness: What outcome am I truly committed to? What is my productive passion?

Boredom: Where is my sacred space, and where am I stuck in busy boredom?

Comfort: How will I stretch myself today, and step out of my comfort zone?

Delusion: Where am I doing something that doesn’t seem like me?

Ego: Where am I becoming inflexible due to ego? (Playing the victim? Demanding my way?)

Fear: What little risk will I take today/this week/this month to confront my fear?

Guardedness: Where are my relational outages, and what do I need to do about them?

Todd Henry

Positioning himself as an “arms dealer for the creative revolution”, Todd Henry teaches leaders and organizations how to establish practices that lead to everyday brilliance. He is the author of five books (The Accidental Creative, Die Empty, Louder Than Words, Herding Tigers, The Motivation Code) which have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and he speaks and consults across dozens of industries on creativity, leadership, and passion for work.

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8 Comments

Josh Medeski on December 31, 2014 at 7:50 pm

Todd, I would love if the 7 questions could be written out :)
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- Todd Henry on December 31, 2014 at 7:54 pm
  
  Ahh – great idea! I’ll write them up and post over the next few days.
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Karen Alaniz on January 9, 2015 at 4:24 pm

Todd, I listen to your podcasts on my daily walks. I just wanted to tell you that I get so much out of them. I’m a business of one as an author-writer-entrepreneur. The advice and experience you share is just as relevant to an individual as they are to companies and corporations. Thanks for the inspiration and education!
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- Todd Henry on January 13, 2015 at 3:32 pm
  
  Thanks so much, Karen. That means a lot.
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Robert Longley on January 18, 2015 at 10:53 am

I know you just came up with a new book title, but I think this could be added to the future book list –
7 Essential Questions To Ask Yourself
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- Todd Henry on January 18, 2015 at 3:14 pm
  
  Good idea, Robert!
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Jess Kah on February 28, 2015 at 3:27 pm

Todd-
I really enjoyed this podcast, but did have a thought. You mentioned the idea that the responsibility/life’s work of a creative is to “go into the dark room and turn on the light,” and I found that a little bit reductive or limiting. I want to suggest that there are other ways to explore that “room” than flooding it with light, and that this image is steeped in a culture of empiricism that might be antithetical to some of the other (more intuition-based) ideas that you champion in your book (which I loved).
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- Todd Henry on February 28, 2015 at 4:55 pm
  
  I see what you mean, Jess. I think by that phrase, Thad meant the willingness to explore those intuitions, and not shrink back out of fear of the unknown. However, your point is well taken.
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