Sometimes, a simple question can really change your perspective. One I love asking myself and others in coaching sessions is:

"What would I do if I already had millions in my bank account?"

If your answer is, I’d quit my job, well, that’s some valuable insight right there.

Because this question helps to take money out of the equation, and you think about what you truely would like your life to look like.

There’s another money-related question that is as simple and as powerful, but that takes the opposite approach. And it's a question that works wonders for Service Design projects:

What if we had no budget?

This one forces us to use less resources. It makes us look at what we already have and pushes us to think if we should even bother making that project. (1)

Action question

For which project or challenge in your work or life could you use the question, "What if we had no budget?" as a starting point to change your thinking?

Footnote

(1) This question fits nicely with other Service Design Principles, like focusing on the existing resources.

Daniele's notes

• This is the first shitty draft of this principle

• This principle might one day make it in the fifth book in the "Service Design Principles" series that explores how to better serve humans and the planet.

• If you're curious about service design principles, you can get the four previous books in the series, with proofread principles and less grammatical creativity.

How I wrote this

This principle draft is based on an audio note I took while walking that was transcribed and cleaned using Audiopen. I then reviewed and improved the text by hand.