Fear Of Asking Stupid Questions

Each one of us carries inside us different forms us fear. One of such fear is the fear of asking stupid questions. There is an inherent fear inside us that tells us not to open our mouth or ask anything just because the person in front might take us to be stupid. Our question may be valid and it may hold lot of meaning but the fear makes us believe that the best route to take is to stay quite and preserve the sanity of the situation. We don’t want to be a laughing stock or being perceived as stupid in front of other people and it is this fear that holds us down and makes us miss many opportunities and moment of glories.

The intention of this post is to remove this fear from your mind and help you squeeze on opportunities that you might have missed till now. Attention grabber’s rock and such kind of fear gives you an inherent disadvantage. When I wrote Top 10 attention grabbers my purpose was to help you take the center stage and asking questions in one way to get you that opportunity. The fear of asking stupid questions is in itself a myth and this jinx needs to be broken.

Lets dug deep into this subject and see how you can kill this fear safely and without much effort.

Are there really any thing called as “Stupid Questions”. The answer is no

1) No question is stupid

2) It is the ease with which it can be answered

3) It is its obvious nature that makes other people doubt your understanding.

In essence there is nothing called as stupid questions? How other people perceive it is something that makes it a stupid and intelligent question.

In effect it is all about perception

1) People feel you should have already known it

2) People feel you have wrongly misinterpreted the situation

3) People feel that you are naïve in your analysis

Same question can be perceived as an intelligent one provided the situation is different or it is presented in a different manner.

So everything now boils down to

1) How the question is being asked

2) What words you use to ask the question

3) What information you sought when you ask the question

Lets take an example here- Imagine you gave a complete one hour speech on Barack Obama and at the end of the presentation I asked a question “Can you tell me the name of the person you just talked about?”

Now this gets classified as stupid question just because you talked about an hour about the person and I had no idea about who you talked about when the person is one the most famous personality we have today. If you look at it closely you would find that

1) Question was not stupid, it was a simple one

2) I missed out the name of person and the complete context in your complete speech

3) In end I asked my question in a manner that made it looked like a stupid one even though it was me should be blamed for it and not my question

The above gives us good points on how we can kill our fear of asking stupid questions.

To kill the fear All we need is to

1) To be attentive during the discussion

2) Ask the question in a right way

3) The question we need to ask is the valid one and should not ask it just for sake of saying something.

Yes, it sometimes happen that even though everything is clear, people ask questions for the heck of asking it and in the process they end up being termed as the ones asking stupid questions

So you need to work on both parts- the attentiveness and the way you ask the question

In example above, You need to frame the question in a manner that people should not take it as stupid. So instead of me asking you “Can you tell me the name of the person you just talked about?” I could have asked

“ Thanks for information but can you tell me the complete name of the person and what others names with which he is popularly known?”

Presuming I was not attentive but still I framed the question in a manner that it does not made it a stupid question.

It is very important to ask questions when there is a need or situation that demands your presence but at same time you need to manage

1) The information you have

2) The words you speak

3) How to make people perceive it.

Do it once, try it more time, and you would see the difference for yourself

It is the words that matter. Words can make or break the situation. How good or bad words you use depends on your experience. But one thing you should always make sure- keep learning and keep trying. There is no second way. It is with time only that things get refined and you would get your natural flair. Fear of asking stupid question is a myth; just kill it with you might and enjoy the success which you have missed till now.

Picture – Edú