Why and How – Part one of the Speech

There are two very important questions to ASK:  WHY AND HOW

I would like to share the content of my favorite speech on the boat… It starts with a story about a woman baking a banana bread. She makes the dough and before baking it, she cuts the ends off. One day she taught her son how the make it and he asked her:  WHY do you cut the ends of the banana bread off before you put it in the oven? The mother answered: “Because that is how it is supposed to be done. That is how my mother taught me to do it.”

The son was not satisfied with this answer and went to his grandmother and asked her: “Why do you cut the ends of the banana bread before you bake it?” And she answered: “Because the bread is too big to fit in the tray”.

If you do not ask WHY you would have stupidly repeated doing things in the same way, when you could have also decided to take a little less of the ingredients or simply buy a bigger tray instead of wasting the dough. If things are not clear to you, or people teach you something and you do not understand why things are done in a certain way – don’t be afraid to ask why? (Das haben wir immer schon so gemacht, ist keine Antwort!). Maybe there is a better way of doing it!!

WHEN IS IT STUPID TO ASK WHY?

But there are also situations when it is stupid to why! If you go out and the girls or guys are not interested in you… it is stupid to start asking yourself why? Because all answers will be negative and take you nowhere. You will be saying things to yourself like:

• because I am not pretty or handsome enough
• because my clothes are not nice enough
• because my hair is not nice enough

You are putting yourself down and this thinking takes you nowhere… You are confronting yourself with assumptions about yourself. A better question to ask here is HOW?

HOW CAN I MAKE WOMEN OR MEN LIKE ME?

Now you get constructive answers that can help you do something about it.

You could say:

• I could buy nicer clothes
• I could get a new haircut
• I could learn to be more funny and spontaneous

Now you are thinking in a way that enables you to change the situation.

I love how this guy makes everything really simple 🙂