Ask 'Why', Not 'What'

When a child asks ‘why’, what do we do? Often, we will answer them. But if they ask again and again, we tend to stop answering and tell them to stop asking why!

This is a common downfall in health care, the quality of your questions will always dictate the quality of your answers and thus your actions.

In health care, too often we ask, ‘what is going on’, which seems an obvious question but it often gives us a poor answer and a lesser action.

Take this simple analogy, the fire alarm goes off at home and when you hear the noise you ask yourself, what is going on?

The answer would be that there is an alarm going off. And the next action to stop this would be to take the batteries out. Problem solved! Or is it? You see the noise has stopped, but is there a fire still raging?

The same is true for pain, if we ask what is going, and the answer is ‘I have pain in my big toe’, what’s the next step? To take a painkiller to stop the pain. But again, I ask, is the problem solved? Maybe not. The pain may have gone but was that just a sign of a nerve caught in your back that may also control the strength of your leg, was it gout as a sign of poor diet that is also harming your liver and bowel?

My point this week is a simple one but one I would encourage you to start asking today. Why?

Be your inner child when it comes to your health, be curious, do not be satisfied with the first answer. If you want a real solution to your health, illness, or aliment, then you must ask why.

Find out the real reason and then take action to fix the problem for good.

With love,
Tom