Have you ever made a decision that you wound up regretting?  I know I have more times than I would like to admit.  I am willing to bet all of us have made decisions that did not turn out how we intended them to.  Sometimes there can be serious consequences for these poor decisions we make.  Have you ever looked back on that decision and thought, “How could I have been so dumb?” or “Why didn’t I see that coming?”  Again, I know I have.  What if I told you there was a question you could have asked that  could have helped you decide differently and avoid almost any poor decision you have ever made?  Would you be interested?

I have great news for you there is such a question.  Author Andy Stanley shares it with us in his book, The Best Question Ever.  You can even get six free online training videos about the question at www.JustAskIt.org .  I highly, highly encourage you to buy the book and watch the videos on the website.  I clearly cannot take credit for this question as I learned it from Andy Stanley, but I am so thankful he has identified it and taught it so well through the years because my life has GREATLY benefited from it.  My hope and prayer in writing this post is you will begin your journey of asking this question so you can begin to live the life God desires for you.

So, what is The Best Question Ever?  I am so glad you asked.

There is so much wisdom and context packed into this question that I will not attempt to explain in one blog post.  Again, I highly encourage you to watch the videos at www.JustAskIt.org .  I will only make two observations.  First you have to know what your future hopes and dreams are.  Secondly

 So often when we make poor decisions it is because we ask ourselves a more common and more foolish question, “Is this wrong?”  There are so many things we can do that are not “wrong”, but they are not wise.  Often times even if we do wind up deciding to do something wrong it is after a series of unwise decisions that led us to a place where it seemed like we had to do the wrong thing.

Let me share some examples of decisions I used to make before I learned the best question ever and what changed as a result of asking this question.

Q – Is it wrong to drink soda?
A – No it is not wrong to drink soda.
Result – I drank lots of soda, was always tired, and was 5olbs overweight.

Best Q – Is it wise to drink soda?
A – No it is not wise to drink soda because I want to live a long, happy, and fulfilling life.  In order to do that I need to have more energy and be in good physical health and drinking soda will not help me do that.
Result – I stopped drinking soda, began drinking Spark, and lost 50+lbs

Q – Is it wrong to watch TV?
A – No it is not wrong to watch TV.
Result – I had several wasted hours of my life on a weekly basis.

Best Q – Is it wise to watch TV?
A – No it is not wise to watch TV because I have future hopes and dreams for my family and every hour I spend watching TV is not being invested in building our better future.
Result – We cancelled cable over five years ago and have gone onto experience incredible personal growth while building a business that is providing us complete financial freedom.

Q – Is it wrong to work 70+ hrs/week as a teacher and coach?
A – No it is not wrong to work 70+ hrs/week as a teacher and coach.  I love coaching and I need to earn income.
Result – My wife and I had no time together and were drowning in credit card debt.

Best Q – Is it wise to work 70+ hrs/week as a teacher and coach?
A – No it is not wise to work 70+ hrs/week as teacher and coach because we value family time and we are tired of fighting over finances.
Result – We invested an additional 10 hrs/week into a part time, home based business over the next 15 months which replaced my teachers income and allowed us to eliminate $15,000 of credit card debt.  That decision has completely removed financial distress from our household and bought me back 70 hrs/week of my life.

Those are just three examples of how I applied The Best Question Ever to my decision making which caused significant improvements in the results I was seeing in my life.  What would happen if you began to implement The Best Question Ever into your daily decision making?

Question: What is one decision you have made that could have been avoided with The Best Question Ever and what could you have decided to do differently?  Comment below