Some Answers Only Come After You Move: Week 4 - The Move May Change The Question
Some Answers Only Come After You Move:
Week 4 The Move May Change the Question
When the Question We Started With No Longer Fits
The Move May Change the Question
Sometimes we begin moving because we are trying to answer a particular question.
Should I pursue this?
Can this work?
Is this the right direction?
What will happen if I take the next step?
We move expecting experience to help us answer what we were already asking.
And sometimes it does.
But there are other times when movement does something we did not anticipate.
It changes the question.
We arrive somewhere we could not see from where we started. We learn something we did not know to consider. We encounter a possibility, limitation, opportunity, or truth that was not visible while we were standing still.
Suddenly, the question that felt so important at the beginning may no longer be the most useful question.
We thought we were trying to determine whether something could work.
Now we may need to ask whether we still want it to work in the way we originally imagined.
We thought the decision was between A and B.
Experience may introduce C.
Sometimes movement does not simply give us better answers.
It gives us better questions.
New Information Can Change What Matters
There are things we cannot know before we enter an experience.
We can prepare.
We can ask thoughtful questions.
We can seek wisdom.
We can consider what we know about ourselves, our responsibilities, and the situation in front of us.
But preparation has limits.
Once we move, we begin interacting with reality rather than possibility alone.
And reality can introduce information we did not have before.
Perhaps the opportunity is different from what we expected.
Perhaps something we assumed would matter greatly becomes less important once we experience it.
Or perhaps something we barely considered becomes impossible to ignore.
Movement can rearrange our priorities.
That does not mean the original question was foolish.
It may have been exactly the question we needed in order to begin.
But the question that gets us moving does not always remain the question that carries us forward.
Sometimes wisdom means recognizing that we have learned enough to ask something different.
You Are Allowed to Learn Something New
Sometimes we resist changing the question because we believe doing so means we were wrong.
We told people what we were pursuing.
We made a plan.
We invested time.
We took the first step.
So when new information changes how we see the situation, we may wonder whether changing our thinking means we lacked clarity in the beginning.
Not necessarily.
We can make a wise decision with the information available to us and still learn something later that changes what wisdom requires now.
Growth gives us information.
Experience gives us information.
Movement gives us information.
Learning something new does not automatically invalidate what we knew before.
Sometimes it simply means we are no longer standing where we were when we made the first decision.
We can honor what was true then without pretending nothing has changed now.
Do Not Force an Old Question Onto a New Reality
There is a difference between perseverance and refusing to reconsider.
Some questions remain useful for a long time.
Others belong to a particular stage of the journey.
If circumstances change, if our understanding deepens, or if movement reveals something significant, continuing to ask the exact same question may keep us from recognizing what is now in front of us.
We may keep asking:
How do I make this work?
when the more useful question has become:
Is this still what I am supposed to be trying to make work?
We may keep asking:
Why did this not turn out the way I expected?
when another question may deserve our attention:
What can I see now that I could not see before?
Reframing the question is not the same as avoiding difficulty.
Some things are worth continuing through discomfort.
Some commitments require patience.
But there are also moments when continuing to frame the situation according to what we believed before we moved prevents us from responding wisely to what movement has revealed.
The Unexpected Opening May Be Part of the Answer
We often imagine clarity as a straight road.
We choose a direction.
We move.
The path becomes clearer.
Then we continue toward the destination we already identified.
But life does not always reveal itself that neatly.
Sometimes we move toward one thing and discover something adjacent to it.
A conversation introduces an idea we had not considered.
An opportunity leads us into a room we did not know existed.
An attempt that does not work shows us where our strengths actually are.
A closed door makes us notice an opening we would have overlooked if everything had gone according to plan.
Movement may bring us to an unexpected overlook.
From there, the landscape looks different.
Not because everything behind us was a mistake.
We simply could not see this view from where we started.
That is one of the reasons movement matters.
It changes our vantage point.
And a different vantage point can change the question.
Reframing Is Not the Same as Starting Over
When the question changes, it can feel as though we are back at the beginning.
But we are not.
We are asking from a different place now.
We have experience we did not have before.
We have information.
We may have stronger boundaries, clearer preferences, new relationships, greater capacity, or a better understanding of what the situation actually requires.
Even what did not work has taught us something.
The move was not wasted simply because it did not produce the answer we expected.
Sometimes the move did exactly what it needed to do.
It brought us somewhere the original question could finally be examined from another angle.
There is a difference between returning to the starting point and reconsidering from a wiser vantage point.
One means nothing changed.
The other means we did.
Let the Question Develop With You
Some questions are invitations.
They get us moving.
They help us investigate.
They make us curious enough to enter an experience rather than continuing to analyze it from a distance.
And once we move, we are allowed to notice what changes.
We are allowed to recognize that something matters more than we thought it would.
We are allowed to discover that something matters less.
We are allowed to admit that the option we were pursuing is no longer the only option we can see.
We are allowed to ask a more precise question because movement gave us more information.
Perhaps this week the question is not:
Did I get the answer I was looking for?
Perhaps it is:
What question can I ask now that I could not have asked before I moved?
A Final Thought
There are times when we begin moving with a clear idea of what we are trying to figure out.
We want the decision.
The confirmation.
The direction.
The answer.
And movement may give us some of those things.
But sometimes its greatest contribution is that it changes where we are standing.
From that new position, we notice something different.
An opening.
A possibility.
A limitation.
A truth.
A direction we could not see from the starting point.
We may realize the original question was necessary, but it was not final.
That does not mean we moved incorrectly.
It means movement gave us new information from which to see, evaluate, and discern.
As you reflect this week, pay attention to what has changed since you began moving.
Not only around you.
Within you.
What do you understand differently now?
What possibility has become visible?
And what are you still asking simply because it was the question you started with?
Sometimes the move gives you an answer.
Sometimes it confirms the direction.
And sometimes the move changes the question.
That change may be part of the clarity too.
Here to serve,
Denise Williams
Creator and Executive Producer
She Thinks She’s Cute™
Reflection Prompt
Think about an area where you have already taken a step, entered an experience, started a conversation, pursued an opportunity, or made a decision.
Instead of asking only whether the move gave you the answer you expected, consider what it has allowed you to see differently.
What question can you ask now that you could not have asked from where you started?
Journal Questions
1. What has movement revealed that I could not have known from where I started?
2. Am I still trying to answer an old question even though my experience, understanding, circumstances, or priorities have changed?
3. If I allowed what I now know to reshape the question, what would I be asking instead?
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