I was recently taking a yoga workshop and part of the time we spent talking to another student about goals we have set but haven’t reached. “I just need to figure out why I don’t like to post,” my partner said, referring to her goal about growing her Instagram followers and her habit of procrastinating about putting out content. I had already shared my many mini-procrastinations on various things: meditating more, exercising more, writing more. Neither of us had good reasons why we didn’t do what we wanted to.

“Does it scare you to be visible?” I asked my partner.

“Maybe,” she said reluctantly.

“Are you afraid of failing?” I asked her.

“A little,” she said. “I just can’t figure it out.”

That’s when it struck me. “What if we stopped trying to figure out why,” I said. “What if we just did it anyway?”

We had made our trying to figure out why another form of procrastination. I realized trying to figure out why was simply holding me back. I’ve started to try to ask better questions to reach my goals:

How can I make this easy?

Where would be a good place to do this?

When do I want to start and finish?

Who are people who can help me?

Asking myself these questions have been much more helpful in making progress. They are concrete and allow me to take the next step. Why questions, of course, have their place, but when you get stuck…ask better questions.