---
title: "Cape Canaveral Questions"
description: "The questions that changed the course of Rahim's life, offered so you can find your own."
author: "Rahim Rasul"
type: "Podcast episode"
series: "Halftime Talks"
episode: 182
published: "2019-09-04"
duration: "16 min"
theme: "Questions and learning"
tags: "questions, vision, ambition, possibility, self-reflection"
audio: "https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/rahimrasul/HTT_CapeCanaveralQuestions.mp3?dest-id=175061"
url: "https://iloveprocess.com/halftime/cape-canaveral-questions/"
site: "I Love Process"
---

# Cape Canaveral Questions

_The questions that changed the course of Rahim's life, offered so you can find your own._

**The question:** How much have you invested in what you pretend to want?

Listen: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/rahimrasul/HTT_CapeCanaveralQuestions.mp3?dest-id=175061

## Before you listen

Cape Canaveral is where NASA launches its rockets into outer space. Cape Canaveral questions are the ones that set us up to launch the trajectory of our lives into another atmosphere. Independent of our inner drive and ambition, there comes an inflection moment that thrusts us beyond the realm of the familiar.

Here I recount a few that charted my course. In the spring of 98, a friend in college asked if I had a vision for who I wanted to become, then where I stood in relation to it, then how long I had left. It landed like a punch to the chest. Moving overseas, my own question was who I could become as a result. Years later, beating myself up over a project, a friend asked whose criteria I was using.

Listen for the close, where what if becomes the billboard for possibility, and a line from Marcus Garvey on ambition, the desire to go forward and improve one's condition, shows what that question reaches for.

## From the talk

> I personally believe that questions have the capacity to launch our intellect, our curiosity, the trajectory of our life, into previously unvoiced atmospheres.
>
> We are not where we began. We are so much farther beyond where we began.
>
> What if is the billboard for possibility. What if allows us to step back and envision ourselves in a greater state.

## Sit with this

- Who can I become as a result of this?
- Whose criteria are you using to beat yourself?
- How long do you have left?

## Transcript

Welcome to another episode of Halftime Talks. My name is Rahim Rasul, and you're listening to the podcast where we recognize that in the middle of our game of life, whether up by 10 or even down by 20, it's all right because we both need halftime talks to uplift us, inspire us and challenge us to bring that level of performance that you and I both know it's gonna take to win the game. Two years ago, a friend of mine asked me to say some MC runs. So I said, these runs on the power to set so it seems like we're back in the favorite place, the only place, the best place to start is with a little bit of appreciation.

So fittingly, I want to begin to appreciate the progress. I want to begin to appreciate that moment before the picture comes together, but the faith of the picture coming together is really complete, not only just in our mind, but in a very vivid image of what we're marching toward. And those moments, those moments when we're standing at the precipice of possibility, and we can't fully see or congeal that into something tangible, but it lives within us. It resonates within us. It beats and circulates through us. That moment before life reflects how we feel on the inside, outwardly, is the moment I want to appreciate, and that was appreciation.

Thank you guys for returning for another episode of halftime talks. In today's episode, I want to dive into some questions. I call them the Cape Canaveral questions, because these like Cape Canaveral, these questions, have the capacity to launch us off into another orbit, a new atmosphere of possibility. And I want to share a few of those questions that have have done it for for me. So, you know, sit back, relax, prepare to take some notes, and even if they're only mental notes, because here we go. I I come from a school of thought that holds questions in high regards. A lot of people get really wrapped up in answers and facts and knowing, knowing, knowing, but the true measure of intelligence, from my perspective, are the questions.

The questions open doors of possibilities. Questions are not binary. They are not static. They are very dynamic. They press against our consciousness in a way that opens up possibility. And from a young age, I always remember teachers or the adult figures talking about potential, living up to it, exceeding it, not living up to it. But the idea of potential impossibilities irrevocably gave me a pursuit to appreciate and love questions. So Cape Canaveral, if you're unaware, is where NASA, right now, launches rockets into outer space. I personally believe that questions have the capacity to launch our intellect, our curiosity, the trajectory of our life, into previously unvoiced atmospheres.

And there's been a few questions that individuals have asked me that really shook the fabric of not just my world, but also how I saw it. Because when your world changes, there's how would you say it, there's really little you can. Do to deny the new landscape that sits before you. And one of the first questions that really stand out to me, it was the I want to say, spring of 98 My friend asked me I was in college, and I probably told the story on the podcast before, but he asked me, Did I have a vision for who I wanted to become? And it seems like such an innocuous question, and I answered it with such fervor and intensity and clarity.

And he asked me the next question, where are you now in relationship to that vision? And it punched me in my chest. It took the it was like that belly punch that makes you gasp for air, and it's like ah, because I was far I crafted this vision. So it was a moment to where we can all dream, we can all sit back in the safety of a vision and a dream. Then he followed that question up with another question. It was like I was, I was in a boxing match, and each question was positioning me for more and more unlock. The last question he followed that up with is, how long do you have left?

And these questions were positioned so beautifully that they challenged me to really consider how committed I was to that vision, and so to bring this into the moment, to bring this to you is there are so many things that we pretend to want. If the receipt of your day, of your week of your month were measured, how much have you invested in what you pretend to want? So bad and so it begins with awareness, and as we follow that up, behavior becomes possible. The next question that really shaped the trajectory of my life and who I am, because at the essence, you hear a philosopher in my voice, I was I was moving overseas, I had saved up a little bit of money, and everybody was asking me, so why are you doing this?

What are you doing this? And the question that was burning in my heart that I wanted to answer that this act of of living abroad, becoming a immigrant, I guess you would say, or expat, or whatever language you want to codify around it, I was like, Who can I become as a result? Of this, so often we want to bring who we are to the party and dominate it. So often we want to claim and hold ourselves to an identity that that we've gotten used to. What if we saw the borders and the parameters of something that we've grown so accustomed to and just scaled that, that plastic sheath, that foil that we cling so hard to, what if it were able to multiply and expand and possibilities were able to stand as clear accomplishments for when we put ourselves in uncomfortable circumstances and adapt.

We are not where we began. We are so much farther beyond where we began. So that was a question, who can I become as a result of this? And those things don't have to be us positioning ourselves in best case scenarios. Sometimes to feel the fire, to cook a little gives us an appreciation for the coolness as well as the flame, and understanding that these these processes, these elements, these circumstances, are working on the essence of who we are, everything that we've come to know, we can bring to the situation, but it's going to open up a door that wouldn't have been possible otherwise. Us.

Another question that is a Cape Canaveral question for me is, I want to say the year was like 2005 2006 and I was beating myself up in a project, and I couldn't figure out how to bring a certain level of excellence that I sought to curate as part of my service offering. And I was frustrated, and I was beating myself up, like I said, and a friend looked at me and said, whose criteria are you using right now to beat yourself up with and at first the question seemed, you know, pretty simple. And then I sat back and contemplated. I contemplated if my client had the same standards for output that I had done, I was so much of a perfectionist, I was so much of a craftsman, it was as if I were constructing a project for myself going beyond the criteria and the metrics that the client themselves were asking for in the moment.

So this stress, this anxiety, this frustration, was something that I had placed upon myself whose criteria are you using? And sometimes it's important to know what game we're playing in, because each game has a certain level and a standard. While we do want to represent excellence at all times as we do want to represent the most that we're capable of. We do not always need to sketch in high resolution and have the expectation for that level of clarity in a draft whose criteria are you using to beat yourself? That was one of my favorite questions. And I'll close this episode with a question that permeates through my mind, often a question that I come back to at the beginning, in the middle, and sometimes at the conclusion of a process, an experiment or an experience. What if?

What if I were able? What if I were interested? What if I were Ravana for what if? What if is? What if is the billboard for possibility. What if allows us to step back and envision ourselves in a greater state. I remember there was this one quote from Marcus Messiah Garvey, and it was about ambition. The quote went, ambition is desire to go forward and improve one's condition. It is the burning flame that lights up the life of an individual, makes him see himself in another state. To be ambitious is to be great in mind and soul, to want that which is worthwhile and strive for it.

That is the essence of what if? What if I were stronger? What if I were able to endure, what if I were able to figure this out? What would open up? What would open up if? And so this episode of halftime talks are about questions that challenge us, questions that control us, questions that shake up our pot, questions that challenge us to get out of the monotony of habitual thoughts and explore the possibility of a new horizon. So with that, I thank you for joining me on another episode of halftime talks. Um. Them challenge yourself, ask yourself some questions. What are your Cardinal questions? What questions have those who've loved you and some that we didn't feel the love from ask you, which had a significant impact on a trajectory and a direction of your life.

Thank you guys for listening to another episode of Halftime Talks. My name is Rahim Rasul. To find more information on halftime talks, visit our website, halftimetalks.net you can find us on iTunes and any other podcast platforms until next time go forward seek joy, or as Aimee Hotep said, What did he say? Eat, drink and be merry, for Tomorrow we shall die. Cheers. You.