There is a word that can dramatically change your life. Everyone knows the word. Every one uses the word several times a day. It is a short word that packs a punch. Properly utilized, it will help you accomplish anything you decide to do. The word is only three letters, and it is usually the first word of the question. The word is how.

Close cousins of how - who, what, when, where and why are also important as Rudyard Kipling explains in his poem in the Just So Stories:

I keep six honest serving-men

(They taught me all I knew);

Their names are What and Why and When

And How and Where and Who.

But you know the answers to the questions of who, what, when, where, and why. You know who you are and who you want to become. You know, or at least have an idea of what you want to do with your life. You know when you need to start. You know where you are and you know why you want to do it. But you may not know how. In order to achieve your goals or to make changes in your life, you just need to know the answer to the question, "How?" You need to ask, "How can I improve my health?", "How can I start a new business?", or "How can I improve my relationship with my husband or wife?" You can achieve any goal that you write down if only you know how and if you take action on the answer to the question, "How can I do that?"

The answers to the "How" questions are usually simple. You just need to focus on asking the right "How" question. If the answer seems complicated, you have not clarified the question enough to get the right answer. There is one obstacle when using the word how to help you achieve your goals. You cannot answer only one "How" question. You have to be persistent and keep asking how questions until you get the answer you need. "How do I lose weight?" The answer is to eat fewer calories than you burn off. What a simple answer. Most of you already know that, but you may not be taking action on it because you stopped asking how before you got the answer that you needed to begin taking action. You should follow-up with the question, "How do I eat fewer calories?" Then ask "How do I eat fewer calories without being hungry?" The next question might be, "How do I prepare foods that are low calorie, filling, and great tasting?" Finally, ask, "How can I maintain this way of eating for the rest of my life so the weight never comes back?"

The point is to keep asking how questions until you find the answer that works for you. Two people may achieve the same goal using two completely different methods. You need to ask "How" until you find your method. The true power of the question "How" is that the answer has already been discovered by someone else or, at the very least, someone else has the information you need to help you discover the answer for yourself. Galileo said that the reason he accomplished so much in the fields of astronomy, physics and mathematics is because he "stood on the shoulders of giants." He used all of the knowledge that was discovered by those before him, and he kept asking "How?" Genius has been defined as the ability to make finer and finer distinctions. In other words, genius is the ability to find answers to more "How" questions.

You don't need to be a genius to accomplish your goals. You don't need to discover everything by yourself. You just need to keep asking the question, "How can I do that?" Then, you need to take the actions dictated by the answers. Ask the question "How", learn the answers, take persistent action and you will succeed.