Most business conversations circle the same familiar questions: What’s the plan? What’s realistic? What worked last time? They’re useful questions. They also quietly keep us inside the boundaries of what’s already been done, what’s already been approved, what’s already been proven. These provocations do something else. They’re designed to get you thinking before you start editing yourself. And that gap between the sensible answer and the honest one? That’s usually where the interesting stuff lives.
Adventurous, Brave, Creative
We framed our provocations using A, B, and C, borrowed loosely from the spirit of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
It’s a film about someone who spent most of his life imagining boldly and living safely… until one day he didn’t. If you haven’t seen it, add it to the list.
Here’s the frame:
Adventurous: stretch what feels acceptable before feasibility gets a vote.
Brave: name what you’re avoiding before you dress it up as strategy.
Creative: ask what doesn’t exist yet, rather than how to improve what already does.
Adventurous might feel slightly reckless.
Brave might feel uncomfortable.
Creative might feel like wishful thinking.
That’s the point.
Purpose
If your purpose was a dare, something you had to follow through on, not just display, what could it push you to attempt this year that you’ve been quietly avoiding?
- Adventurous: What’s one move your purpose has been asking you to make that you haven’thad the nerve to yet?
- Brave: Where do you say the words, but quietly make decisions that contradict them?
- Creative: If you stopped asking “is this how it’s done” and started asking “what would serve our purpose in a way that doesn’t exist yet” what could you redesign?
Values
If your values didn’t just live in your brand story, but actually ran your business, sat at the table during hard calls, showed up in your hiring, what could change?
- Adventurous: What bold line could your business draw that most others in your space wouldn’t?
- Brave: Where are you tolerating something that contradicts a value you claim to hold?
- Creative: How could your values be experienced in tangible ways, not just stated ones?
Fear
If fear wasn’t allowed to set the ceiling on your business this year, what could you attempt?
- Adventurous: What idea feels slightly reckless but deeply exciting, the one you talk yourself out of before it gets a fair hearing?
- Brave: What are you currently calling “not the right time” that is actually just fear with better vocabulary?
- Creative: If you were building this business to last 250 years, not to exit, not to scale, but to endure, what would you have to create that has nothing to do with what you’re currently optimising for?
A gentle challenge to close
You don’t have to answer all of these. But if one of them snagged on something, if you felt a little resistance or a little heat, that’s probably the one worth returning to. Because the point isn’t to have perfect answers. It’s to tell the truth early enough that you can build something real from it.
If you’d like to explore these kinds of questions in a guided space, take a look at upcoming Good Hunter sessions.
