Noah St.

John presents:

AFFORMATIONS®
Bonus Booklet #2

The Power of
Empowering Questions

Copyright © 2012 by Noah St. John All rights reserved.

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Noah St. John Bonus Booklet #2:

The Power of Empowering

Questions

What is a “problem?” We tend to think of problems as things

we’d rather ignore, go away, or simply not have in the first place!

Or we tend to think, “If I just had more money, then I wouldn’t

have any more problems” or “If only I could find the right person to

be with, then all my problems would go away...” Or we look at famous

people or celebrities on TV, and say, "Boy, I bet THEY don't have any

problems…"

The fact is, however, that no matter how much money we have,

who we’re with, what job we do, how famous we are, or even how

happy we are, there are always problem problems in our lives. In fact,

many people mistakenly believe that “happiness” means “the absence

of problems.”

But life, in a sense, is a series of always-evolving problems.

Think about it. Let's say you're broke. That means your problems

© 2012 by Noah St. John All rights reserved. Free resources at www.NoahSt.John.com
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include: "How am I going to pay my bills? How can I make more

money? How am I going to get out of this mess?"

Let's say you solve those problems and you're making some

money. Now your problems might be: "How am I going to pay my

increased taxes? What kind of car should I get? How can I make

more money?"

And let's say you manage to solve these problems. What might

your problems be now? "Should I get a new home or stay here?

Which stock should I invest in? How can I make more money?" (Yes,

that last question seems to stay with us no matter how much we're

making!)

Do you see what I mean? All of life really comes down to solving

problems. But, if you think that the only way you're going to be happy

is if you don't have any problems, that means you've set up your life

so you can’t be happy.

Therefore, if your strategy for “being happy” is “to have no

problems,” you’re setting yourself up for inevitable failure,

unhappiness and frustration.

Does this mean we should just accept all of life’s problems and

not do anything to solve them? No way!

© 2012 by Noah St. John All rights reserved. Free resources at www.NoahSt.John.com
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We just need to realize that life itself is a series of problems and

growth in life means moving from one set of problems to a BETTER

set of problems.

This is neither a pessimistic nor fatalistic way of looking at life,

because once you realize this basic truth, you can use the method

below to solve any problem you’ll ever face for the rest of your life.

And here it is, in four simple steps:

Step One: Sit down with the problem.

This step could also be called, “Invite your problem over for

tea.” Most people try to run from, hide from, or ignore their problems

in the hope they’ll go away. Do these strategies ever work to solve

problems? I don’t have to tell you that the answer is a thudding “No.”

Well, if to ignore or try to deny our problems doesn’t work, doesn’t it

make sense that the first step we should take if we want to do

something that works is the opposite of what doesn’t work?

This is so ridiculously simple that most people have never even

thought of this as a viable strategy before. They think, “Well, maybe if

© 2012 by Noah St. John All rights reserved. Free resources at www.NoahSt.John.com
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I just deny a little harder, or ignore a little more, or run a little

faster...maybe that’ll work.”

Hello? Of course that doesn’t work. Remember the “Ockham’s

Razor” principle of science – the principle that says that the simplest

solution is usually the best one. Well, it applies here, as well.

Therefore, Step One to solving every problem you’ll ever face is to

simply face the problem.

That means: take a deep breath. Sit down in a chair. Don’t go to

bed and lie down (yet). Your problem will still be running around in

your head until and unless you go through these steps in order.

Therefore, it is essential that the first thing you do is sit down

and understand that you are going to do one of the most courageous

things a human being can do: face your own problems. (Why do you

think people love to give advice and try to solve everyone else’s

problems? So they don’t have to look at their own!)

By the way, this first step is BY FAR the hardest one of the four.

It represents nearly 95% of the secret to solving every problem you’ll

ever face — simply having the courage to face it.

© 2012 by Noah St. John All rights reserved. Free resources at www.NoahSt.John.com
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Step Two: Write down every question you can think of

that’s associated with this problem.

Congratulations! You made it to Step Two. Here it is: take out

your journal or a sheet of paper. (Several sheets, actually.) Get a pen.

Take another deep breath.

Put the date and time at the top of the page. Now, ask yourself

every single question you can think of that relates to the problem.

Now, before we go any further, let me ask you something: Did

you realize that every problem you or I or humanity as a

whole has ever faced, or ever will face, is simply a question?

That’s because that’s all any problem ever can be. For instance,

look at the problems I gave you in the examples above. Every one of

them can be expressed as a question.

Let’s take a look at some of the most common problems facing

humanity – people who are broke, in debt, and out of work. The

questions surrounding this issue might include:

How will I get a job?

Where will my next dollar come from?

How will I pay my bills?

© 2012 by Noah St. John All rights reserved. Free resources at www.NoahSt.John.com
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How am I going to feed my children?

How will I pay my landlord?

What kind of work would I really like to do?

When will I start doing something to begin doing that?

How much can I pay my creditors so they don’t take me to

court?

How will I afford that?

Who can help me solve this problem...?

(Notice that I didn’t say these were exactly fun questions.

That’s why we call them “problems” and not “funs.”)

Okay, so you’re writing every single question that comes to your

mind, no matter how crazy, stupid, silly, or irrelevant it seems to you.

If it comes to your mind, write it down — unless you’d like to remain

stuck in your problem!

Now, notice what I DID NOT say. I DID NOT say that you have

to know any or all of the answers to these questions!

In fact, it’s a given, it is absolutely certain, that you won’t know

the answers to these questions yet. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have a

problem in that area, now would you?

© 2012 by Noah St. John All rights reserved. Free resources at www.NoahSt.John.com
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I’m not trying to be facetious here. I'm being absolutely serious.

I want you to know that you are not supposed to know the answer to

your questions –– because, if you already knew the answer, this

wouldn’t be a problem for you!

Therefore, no matter how “stupid” or “ridiculous” you think the

questions are, you’d better write them all down, if you’d like to be free

from this problem.

Frankly, (and this may sound a bit harsh), it doesn’t matter

what you think about your questions or your problems. You can think

they’re “stupid” and “silly” all you want, but that doesn’t help you

solve them, does it?

By the way, the reason we write the date and time on our paper

is so that in six months, when you’re facing another set of problems,

you can refer back to this list and go, “I was worried about that?

Remember when I thought that was a problem?” And enjoy a good

laugh at yourself.

Now we’re ready for Step Three:

Step Three: Go take a nap.

© 2012 by Noah St. John All rights reserved. Free resources at www.NoahSt.John.com
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Or go throw a baseball. Or play tennis. Or talk to a friend.

Or take a walk. Or plant seeds in your garden. Or mow your

lawn. Or read a book. Or write a letter. Or paint a picture.

Or draw with magic markers. Or bake a cake. Or write a poem.

Get the picture? After you have “purged” your mind of every one

of the questions you’re facing, go and do something else.

Let me ask you a question. Do you think that people who are

currently 100 times more successful than you, work 100 times harder

than you do? How would that even be possible?

Do you think they work 100 times longer than you? Again, not

possible.

Are they 100 times smarter than you? Not humanly possible.

What about having 100 times the amount of money when they

started? Although we’d like to believe that, scientific studies of

successful men and women have conclusively proven that the vast

majority of them started out from humble and often very modest

beginnings, even actual poverty. So it's not that, either.

No, the only difference between you and someone who’s 100 or

1,000 times more successful than you, is one thing and one thing

© 2012 by Noah St. John All rights reserved. Free resources at www.NoahSt.John.com
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only. And that is THEY ARE DOING DIFFERENT THINGS THAN

YOU ARE CURRENTLY DOING.

And why are they doing different things than you are currently

doing? Because they have a different perspective than you currently

do. All that means is they see things differently than you do now.

They have a different perspective, which leads to different actions,

which leads to different results.

Notice that I didn’t say that they are smarter, better, faster,

younger, handsomer, prettier, or sexier than you. That’s because that

would be a lie. The only reason someone succeeds while someone

with equal talent, intelligence, and ability does not, is that the

successful person DOES DIFFERENT THINGS (takes different

actions), because they SEE THINGS DIFFERENTLY (have a different

perspective) than the currently non-successful person.

Doesn’t it make sense, then, if we would like to be successful —

and I’m assuming you do, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this —

that we should just forget about what everyone has told us about

success...and just do what successful people do?

What does this mean? Simple. After years of studying the

science of success, I have observed that successful people become

© 2012 by Noah St. John All rights reserved. Free resources at www.NoahSt.John.com
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successful because they think in one word. They use one word, eleven

letters long, that produces their success. You might call this word the

“mantra” of success.

What is that word? The word is…

OPPORTUNITY

What I am suggesting is, if you really want to let yourself

succeed, take every one of the questions that you wrote in Step Two

and see each of them as opportunities:

• Opportunities for you to help yourself and to help others

in the process.

• Opportunities to learn, to profit.

• Opportunities to grow and prosper.

• Opportunities to be and express more of Who You Really

Are.

Will this help you answer the questions? Yes. How do I know?

Well, you can answer that for yourself. Did you know, before a few

minutes ago, that every problem you’ll ever face is simply a question?

© 2012 by Noah St. John All rights reserved. Free resources at www.NoahSt.John.com
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Maybe you did, but most people don’t. What I am suggesting is to

have the idea lively in your mind, so that you will not only solve your

own problems – you’re also going to find an opportunity for growth,

for healing, and yes, for profit, in each and every one of them.

So, what does all of this have to do with taking a nap? Simple.

When you take a nap — or do anything to get your conscious

mind off your problems — you are activating your subconscious

mind, which holds the answer to every question you could possibly

ask it. It may not know the answer right at the moment you ask the

question. But that is precisely the point.

Your mind is like a computer. Once you give a computer a

command, it cannot NOT do what you told it to do. It can’t say it

doesn’t feel like doing what you asked it to do. Well, your

subconscious mind functions in the same way.

Once you have asked the questions — which is why you wrote

them down in Step Two — it is impossible for your subconscious

mind to NOT try to find the answers to them.

That's why putting your conscious mind onto something

relatively "mindless" like baking a cake, cleaning your kitchen, or

driving your car is the perfect way to unleash the creative ability of

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your subconscious mind – because these activities require little

conscious thought activity.

Meanwhile, your subconscious mind will be busily doing what it

can’t not do: forming solutions to your problems without you even

being aware of it. Which brings us to the fourth and final step to

solving every problem you’ll ever face...

Step Four: Let the answers come to you.

Notice what I did NOT say: “Force yourself to come up with the

answer.” No. That’s exactly what you’ve been trying to do! Has it

worked? Of course not.

And it won’t. This is not your fault: it is the fault of the strategy

you and I and everyone else was taught: that we have to “work hard”

to solve our problems.

Listen, if that strategy worked, we’d all be millionaires by now,

wouldn’t we? Most people “work hard.” So that can’t be the answer.

The true answer lies in the fact that your subconscious mind holds the

answers to every question you ask it. Your job is to simply get very,

very clear on what the questions are.

© 2012 by Noah St. John All rights reserved. Free resources at www.NoahSt.John.com
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What will happen is – and I know you’ve experienced this

before! – all of a sudden, just as you’re about to fall asleep or put the

cake in the oven, the answer will “pop” into your head! All you have to

do then is to take a moment, write down your answer, and go back to

whatever it was you were doing.

Oh, and one more thing (it’s very important): please remember

to say "Thank you" to your subconscious mind when it solves your

problems. Your subconscious mind is just like a little child: it needs

constant affection and praise. I know that may sound silly or childish,

but just because it’s a part of you doesn’t mean you should take it for

granted. Lavish it with affection and praise and I guarantee you, it

will work miracles for you.

Here, then, is the secret to solving every problem you’ll ever

face in just 4 simple steps:

Step One: Sit down and face the problem.

Step Two: Write down every question associated with the problem

that comes to your mind.

Step Three: Go and do something else.

© 2012 by Noah St. John All rights reserved. Free resources at www.NoahSt.John.com
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Step Four: Let the answer come to you (and then thank your

subconscious mind for providing an answer you hadn’t

thought of before).

I also like to play a little game, where I number the questions

and see how many I have answered within 12, 24, and 48 hours. The

very first time I did this exercise, I started at 9:00 a.m. and wrote 18

questions that I thought I’d never be able to answer. By 5 p.m., I had

15 out of the 18 questions answered — and I realized that I could

answer the other three with two phone calls!

This technique will amaze and astonish you. But let me caution

you. It will not work unless you follow the steps exactly and in the

correct order. Just thinking about your problems is not good enough.

If you doubt this, just ask yourself if that strategy has worked so far.

A final word of caution: Don’t let the simplicity of this method

fool you. This method is “simple on the far side of complexity.” That’s

why so few people use it.

Please write and tell me your experience with this method. I

would love to hear your success stories!

© 2012 by Noah St. John All rights reserved. Free resources at www.NoahSt.John.com
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About The Author

Recognized worldwide as “The Abundant Lifestyle Authority”,

Noah St. John is the inventor of Afformations®, best-selling

author, and creator of The Inner Game of Success and The Inner

Game of Leadership training programs.

One of the world’s most sought-after experts on personal

growth and professional development, Noah has been featured on

CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, NPR, PARADE, Woman’s Day, Los

Angeles Business Journal, Huffington Post, Chicago Sun-Times,

Forbes.com, Selling Power, Bottom Line/Personal and The

Washington Post.

Noah delivers high-impact, customized strategies that

enable entrepreneurs and organizations to achieve unprecedented

growth. Since 1997, he’s helped his clients add over $75 million

dollars in new revenues to their bottom line.

More than 200,000 people in 50 countries have experienced

Noah’s breakthrough training methods. And his books have been

translated into twelve languages worldwide.

© 2012 by Noah St. John All rights reserved. Free resources at www.NoahSt.John.com
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Noah encourages you to join the Afformations Revolution by

sharing your Afformations success stories and connecting with other

Afformers around the world on The Official Afformations® Fan Page:

www.AfformationNation.com

Keep me posted and keep afforming!

© 2012 by Noah St. John All rights reserved. Free resources at www.NoahSt.John.com