Asking questions is a good thing. There are times in my life, and I am sure in your own lives, that we just do not understand something we experience. That lack of understanding should give rise to question asking, but at times we just do not feel comfortable asking them or even know what questions to ask. This will lead to issues if we go through life not being able to probe a topic a little further to get the proper understanding that we require of it. Some of these topics do not have a significant bearing on our lives, like, What sound does a Zebra make? Or who played in that movie with that guy with a mustache? The strange thing is we can ask these questions of anybody all day long. They are easy to ask because they do not have an emotional hold over us. It is the topics that we feel like others have a grasp of and feel like we should also that create an emotional response in us. Not knowing makes us less than we are in our own minds. This is so far from reality that it should never be a concern. We cannot know everything about everything, and if we did, then what progress we could make, and how tired we would be?
Raise your hand if you have ever gone to a presentation on something you knew just a little about and sat through the whole thing, and when it was over, you ended up even more confused than you were when you walked in? Let’s be honest with each other. This happens way too much in our lives. We go to learn and get more befuddled with each passing minute of the presentation. This confusion is even compounded tenfold when the graphs and charts make an appearance. Graphs and charts were designed to make things more understandable, but sometimes they lend to a level of confusion that we were not previously aware of.
I volunteered some of my time at my city library, teaching people how to use digital e-readers and tablets. More often than not, I had people come in and say that the only reason they have the device is because they won it or that someone gave it to them. Some have had them for months, and they are still in the box with the plastic on them. The first step to learning is getting to a place that can teach you, which all of these students had. The second step is to ask questions. How I structured my classes is that I forced them to ask questions of me. Before you knew it, the class was all raising their hand, asking me all sorts of questions. Once one person asks a question, the next will and the next. The floodgate opens once they realize that the group, as a whole, has a gap in knowledge and that fear of the individual who should know more is dispelled.
I bring this up because too often in our lives when it comes to financials, retirement, and our overall futures, we sit quietly. We fail to ask questions of the people who assist us. We just assume they know more than us, so it should all work out. If you wonder what I am driving at it is simply this: do not go on faith that it will work. Make sure that you ask enough questions to understand why it will work. Trust me, I like questions that mean that you want to learn and understand what is happening and that you are invested in your future. This is a good thing.
So, ask away.
