ALL THE QUESTIONS I WANT TO ASK.

How often do you ask these questions when you walk into a restaurant?

• Why do I like coming here?
• Why did they choose this color and how does it make me feel as a customer
• Would I bring my friends here? Why/why not?
• How many people can be seated at one time?
• How long would people stay?
• How many dishes would they have to sell per hour to make a profit?
• How many people may walk in and leave without buying anything?
• How many people are working right now? Would they need more help or have too many?
• What would I do differently to attract more customers?

Am I making your head spin? Recently, I had a conversation with a young college student who was seeking advice on how to think differently in a routine that felt limiting. There were many things she wanted to change: work environment, colleagues, living environment and social relationships. And being a young person in a new city made it only harder.

In response, we did a little thinking activity together as we had dinner. We went through a series of questions like I listed earlier and within 30 minutes, we were deep into all the details of the restaurant.

How often do you take the time to notice the details in your daily routine or in your life?

Learning how to think differently starts by being curious about the things in our everyday routine. What if we took some time to ask one more question? What more could we learn about things we never think about? If we choose to take the time to make the eating experience an adventure, wouldn’t that be fun? Oh, imagine the things you’ll learn in the process, and the unexpected insights!

So this week, I challenge you to wonder and ask more questions.

Maybe you’ll start a list of questions you have about your favorite restaurant or your favorite commute to work. It all starts with one question.

What question will you ask today?