Let’s pretend a miracle happened and all our problems are solved. Everything is perfect. Don’t worry about how it happened, it was a miracle. How could you tell? What’s different now after the miracle?
The Miracle Question comes from Solution-Focused Brief Therapy. There are similar techniques from other sources: Remember the Future, Idealized Design, The Spice Girls Question.
The basic ideas are the same:
- Create clarity about what you really want over clarity about what you don’t want;
- Don’t limit want you want based on what is currently happening or whether you know how to get it;
- Anchor off of perfect, not off of “good enough”.
I’ve found the Miracle Question encourages hope, progress, and creativity.
I typically use the Miracle Question when the answer to “How are things going? How might things be better?” is something like “It’s fine”.
