The thirteenth revolution

[Revolutionary skills and attributes; questioning]

Some skills and attributes are always useful to have up your sleeve for any given situation or eventuality. Yet if you’re focusing on a particular mission, or a particular aspect of your life, you’ll need to source and develop the right skills for the job.

Below is an incomplete skill list. No-one would expect anyone to have or need all of them or even understand them all, but it might still be worth having a good look and making a note of which skills you believe you already have, and which ones may need developing or improving…

Active listening skills. Ability to juggle information. Working outside the box. Communication skills. Ability to filter information. Ability to make links & connections. Trial & error. Problem-solving. Observation skills. General awareness & self-awareness. Being neutral & non-judgemental. Critical thinking. Trusting your instincts. Thinking on your feet. Using logic. Being open & honest with yourself. Looking at the process, not just the content. Being able to summarise & make conclusions. Understanding your own emotions. Understanding your own actions. Separating truth from lies. Understanding your own thinking. Understanding your own bodily sensations. Learning from mistakes. Understanding how other people tick. Picking up clues from others. Organisational skills. Creativity. Expression. Spontaneity. Structure. Using your senses. Endurance. Questioning. Finding answers. Reflecting. Experimenting, Exploration. Attunement. Silence. The process of elimination. Ability to share & reach out for support. Ability to learn on the job. Interpersonal skills. Journaling. Playfulness.

One skill that is easy to do yet highly effective is asking questions, whether this be within an internal dialogue or out aloud to others. Finding the answers to these questions might not be so straightforward, but you’ll never know until you start the ball rolling. A good question can be worth its weight in gold. A good question is often a challenging question, one you might have avoided asking for fear of the answer. A good question could come out of nowhere and knock you for six. Below are some examples of probing questions.

Who am I?
What is important to me in my life right now?
Do I need to say something to someone?
How can I improve the quality of my life?
What is missing from my life?
What location(s) give(s) me a sense of belonging?
What is the safest part of my body?
If not now, when? If not here, where? If not this, what? If not you, who?