💎 Friday Gems (Smarter questions, Limiting beliefs, Getting out of a funk, Dutch Oven bread, and much more!)

Create a questioning muscle to amplify your curiosity.

Low Fidelity is a free weekly newsletter that provides fresh insights on mindset, mindfulness, and personal growth. Empowering you to show up, thrive, and achieve your full creative potential.

Photo by Frank Huang on Unsplash

Questions are powerful tools to help us communicate, learn, and better understand ourselves and the world around us. As Christopher Roosen, a human-centered designer said, “Questions create energy, insight, and motion.”

This week’s common thread weaving through the gems is the importance of questions in our lives. Whether it’s asking others or ourselves, the art of asking questions is critical to living an examined life where we are actively working to become our personal best.

I hope you can take one insight this week and apply it in your life.

In this edition of Friday Gems:
🙋🏿‍♂️ The Art of Asking Smarter Questions
🧠 How to prevent LIMITING BELIEFS from taking root in your mind.
💬 Coach Yourself out of a Funk in 3 Steps
🍞 Gem of a Recipe: Homemade Dutch Oven Bread
🌟 Gem of Wisdom: On The Power of Questions
🎵 Gem of a Tune: Low Tide by Sátyr and Mosalla

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💎 The Art of Asking Smarter Questions

Núria Madrid

Indeed, leaders have embraced the importance of listening, curiosity, learning, and humility—qualities critical to skillful interrogation. “Question-storming”—brainstorming for questions rather than answers—is now a creativity technique.

Asking good questions isn’t only in the realm of CEOs and executives. All business professionals benefit by being curious and asking smarter questions.

Since there is no formal training in asking questions we must learn as we go which is why this article is a gem this week.

In a three-year study, the authors of this article asked executives about the kinds of decisions they had to make and the types of questions they pursued. The result is a practical framework all of us can use to help us be intentional when assessing a situation and to enable us to ask the right set of questions.

The framework includes questions grouped into five domains with each domain unlocking certain aspects of the decision-making process.

• Investigative - What’s known? Dig deeper to uncover the nonobvious information.

• Speculative - What if? Reframe the problem to analyze it more broadly. Other types of questions you could ask are, “How might we…? or “What else…? This is where you can explore unique, out-of-the-box, and creative solutions that address an issue.

• Productive - Now what? Assess your skills, capabilities, time, and other resources at your disposal when tackling an issue.

• Interpretive - So, What…? These questions help you synthesize your understanding to go beneath the issue and redefine the core such as “What is this problem really about?” or “Why are we doing this?”

• Subjective - What’s Unsaid? This category of questions is different from the others because it deals with personal revelations, frustrations, tensions, hidden agendas, and things unsaid, which could all derail the decision-making process.

“I want to create a questioning muscle within the team…I need to set the stage so that my curiosity is amplified by the curiosity of others. Their questions should stimulate my questions.”

Gilles Morel - President of Whirlpool Europe, Middle East, and Africa

We may be comfortable asking the same set of questions that have worked for us previously. The key approach is to practice asking questions from all domains so we can build up our muscles so we can mix ask the right questions to address an issue and make better decisions.

Read the full post on Harvard Business Review

💎 How to prevent LIMITING BELIEFS from taking root in your mind

I have a limiting belief that pops up now and then that I’m not a good designer because I don’t have a degree. It’s one that kept me from being present and bringing my best at work. Undoing this belief is a continuous work in progress.

Breaking free from our limiting beliefs is one of the most important work we can do to live our life to the fullest.

I find it fascinating that a belief, which has no form, shape, or solidity, and which is only in our heads, can hold us back as much as a physical restraint or obstacle in our way.

Limiting beliefs are subtle, dangerous, and deceptive thoughts that keep us locked into a story our minds have created and which we believe to be the truth.

This enlightening post, Martial X breaks down step by step how our irrational beliefs are formed and how we can break free from their clutches.

According to the ABC theory proposed by Albert Ellis:

it is not the events themselves that directly cause our emotions and behaviors, but rather our thoughts and interpretations about those events.

With this understanding of just how irrational thoughts are formed, we can see that by changing our thoughts and our perspective on events, we can change the limiting beliefs that hold us back and break free from the grip they hold on us.

There is no easy or quick fix to this change. Transforming our mindset takes persistence, focus, and consistency.

I love the analogy shared in this post comparing a limiting belief to an elastic band.

Photo by Michael Walter on Unsplash

I like to compare this process to the pulling of an elastic band.

The contracted band in its primary state represents the irrational belief that is limiting.

The force used to stretch that band is the new and positive belief/mindset one is using to replace the previous one.

Just as an elastic band, loses its elasticity the more it is stretched, the more we replace a limiting belief with a positive one the less control the limiting belief will have on us, and eventually lose all of its control.

But the key is to set the expectations that all this undoing takes persistence, time, and consistency. The limiting belief probably didn’t happen overnight so the work to undo it will take some time and we can crumble one belief we can start to undo all of them as well as prevent new ones from forming.

Remember, you can do anything you set your mind to! ✊🏽

Read the full post on Pen & Sword Journal:

How to prevent LIMITING BELIEFS from taking root in your mind.

💎 Coach Yourself out of a Funk in 3 Steps

Photo by whoislimos on Unsplash

You know those moments when you’re just out of your element and unable to think your way out of it?

Life happens.

One day we are on top of the world and the next the proverbial train hits you and knocks you down.

We need to be prepared for when we do get into a funk and this three-step method by Hyper Island is a solid addition to our toolbox to work through the thoughts and feelings and to get back to a better place, one where we actively enjoy life and each precious moment, to be at our own personal best.

The three coaching steps are:

• Pause - Think about what you need to move forward and get back to feeling like yourself.

• Create a Vision Statement - What do you need to feel like yourself again? Create an inspirational statement to keep reminding yourself during this time.

• Build Supporting Habits - Getting out of your head and taking action is key to feeling like yourself once again. Create a tiny habit to make small changes so you can get back to your personal best.

It’s not a matter of if we will fall into a funk but when. Taking some time to become aware of how we are feeling and coaching ourselves to get out of a funk is a critical skill and method to keep in our mindset toolbox.

✊🏽

Read the full post on Hyper Island

💎 Homemade Dutch Oven Bread

After making this easy Dutch oven bread, you may not bake bread another way again!

There are moments in our lives we remember vividly as inflection points that changed the direction our lives took from then on. This recipe was a life-changing moment for me.

Before this recipe, I had been failing miserably at making bread. I had failed so many times I was about to give up hope entirely. Making flat, dense, tasteless bread was the norm.

Until the fateful day, I tried out this recipe. That’s the day the clouds parted and hope was restored in my ability to make a simple loaf of bread.

This recipe was my gateway recipe to making bread and now I love making all different types of bread.

This recipe gave me the confidence to keep going.

This recipe gave me hope!

So if you’re on the fence about baking bread, please give this recipe a try.

Crafted with five simple ingredients, this bread embodies the essence of wholesome simplicity but with an impressive flavor profile thanks to three rises that develop depth and taste.

Essential tool: Dutch Oven

Baking the bread in a Dutch oven yields a crackling, golden crust that gives way to a soft, chewy interior. Versatile and delicious, this bread can be enjoyed alone, in a sandwich, or alongside any dish.

You will need a Dutch oven to make this recipe which you can pick up for around $50. This will be a great investment in a multipurpose kitchen utensil and you will be amazed at the results. This is where the magic happens.

Baking Tips:

• Download the Tasty app and use it to get step-by-step instructions with short clips to show you exactly what to do at each step. This will be massively helpful when starting.

• Put on some relaxing music to get you into the zone.

• Make this recipe when you are home for the day because you will need to tend to the dough multiple times.

• Have a good pair of high-heat cooking mitts since you will be handling an extremely hot Dutch oven.

Now you are ready to enjoy the tastiest, crunchiest, chewiest, and most delicious bread with the simplest ingredients.

Please send me pictures if you make this recipe.🍞

Read the full recipe on Tasty.com

💎 Gem of Wisdom: On The Power of Questions

Questions create energy, insight and motion. Answers just finish a thought - Christopher Roosen

💎 A Gem of a Tune: Low Tide by Sátyr and Mosalla

Summer break is here and this song is a perfect tune to start the day or even while making some delicious Dutch oven bread (see recipe above).

Feel free to send any recommendations for songs to include in the Low Fidelity playlist.

Enjoy!

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That’s it for this week’s gems. Do you have a gem you would like to share? Hit reply and share, or DM me.

I’m thankful that you read this far.

Have a fantastic weekend!