In times when everything is changing, and nothing you thought was true can be counted on, how do you go about creating the life you’d like to have?

Access Consciousness, a 20-year-old self-improvement technique developed by Gary Douglas, has a number of tools to enable you to do just that-no matter what social or economic conditions are around you.

One of these tools is to ask questions. Questions empower, inviting the universe to show us opportunities and new ways of doing things that wouldn’t occur to us if we hadn’t asked. Whenever we think we have the answer, the solution, the right approach to anything, we cannot notice other possibilities.

The changes of the past few years have certainly shown that much of what we thought we had right was not, shall we say, very dependable. Examples abound, from the stock market to the housing market to a recovery that is “jobless.”

Some of the questions which is can be helpful to ask are, “How does it get even better than this?” This is a multipurpose question. Obviously when something undesirable happens, it would be great to know how it could get better! But this question is equally useful when something great occurs. Do you want the good stuff to stop, or would you like it to keep on going? If you reach a conclusion like, “This is as good as it gets!” does any possibility of it getting even better exist?

One woman used this question to her great advantage during a trip to Paris. After spending several nights in a hotel where the disco was just below her window, she wanted to treat herself to a really nice upscale hotel for her last night in Paris. When she walked into the 5 star hotel of her choice off the Champs-Elysees, they informed her they did not have any rooms available.

She said, “How does it get any better than that?”

This could be a question that had not been heard in Paris before. The staff was a bit flustered and referred her to someone else, who also very seriously informed her that there was no room at the inn.

“How does it get even better than that?” she asked again, quite cheerfully. (It’s actually difficult not to be cheerful when you ask this question-try it and find out!)

That staff person excused himself and went looking for the manager. The manager came out of the back office and asked her if the honeymoon suite at the price of a regular room would meet her requirements. She allowed as how it would, ending with, again, “How does it get even better than that?”

The manager got even more creative! “We could send a bottle of complimentary champagne up to your room,” he suggested.

Not one to mess with success, she exclaimed again, “How does it get even better than this?” Perhaps the champagne was delivered by the gorgeous male hunk this middle-aged woman was looking for-she hasn’t divulged what happened after she asked the question that time.

A similarly useful question is, “What’s right about this I’m not getting?” This question is useful for those not-so-fun events. Did you ever lose a job or a lover in what seemed like a disaster at the time, only to find 6 months or 6 years later that it was not only a gift but possibly one of the best things that had happened to you? This question, “What’s right about this I’m not getting?”, serves as a fast-forward. It allows your awareness of the “win” in what appears to be a “losing” situation to show up much quicker. How does it get even better than that?

One of the ways that questions work to create new possibilities is that they allow our points of view to shift. A small shift in our point of view can create a huge shift in the world as we find it.

Although it can often seem to us that our thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and points of view about something are an accurate reflection of reality, Gary Douglas, founder of Access Consciousness, and Dr. Dain Heer, his business partner and co-author of many books on consciousness, point out that this is a great misconception on our part.

“Your point of view creates your reality,” they point out, “not the other way around.” If you expect the world to be full of wonderful possibilities that you never thought of before, that is what you will find. If, on the other hand, you expect gloom and doom, the universe will oblige you by sending that as well.

Another great question is, “What else is possible?” We can tend to fall into the trap of believing what we see is all there is. Just asking that question is an invitation to the universe to show us what else could be lurking around the corner, ready to delight us if we will only ask a question.

If you’re really interested in creating a life that’s more dynamic it’s been lately, there is an even more effective way to use questions. Merely saying the questions listed above can create miraculous changes in your life. That’s a great start.

You do not have to know the answer to these questions instantly, by the way. The purpose of these questions is not just another answer-that would be another limitation anyway. The purpose of these questions is to generate awareness of different possibilities.

Just asking these questions is a request to the universe to send you something different. This new improved possibility can show up in all kinds of ways you wouldn’t expect. Sometimes it takes a little while for the universe to arrange everything that’s necessary for what you’ve requested to show up.

If speeding up every aspect of your life is more what you’re after, you could try living as the question. When you live as the question, questions move from something you season your speech with to a way of being in the world. Deciding on an answer, a conclusion, a judgment, any one way to do things becomes increasingly uncomfortable.

What if your operative state were “What else is possible?” in every aspect of your life? What else might possible for your whole life?