If you spent any time with my 5 year old nephew he would blow your mind with his insatiable energy around being curious in everything he sees and touches. Any number of things can spark his curiosity. Will he still have this attitude when he gets older?
My own history moving into a adulthood says no. I’ve had to move from naturally having the automatic tendency of being curious, to one who in which I have to work at it as an adult. As we grow older we lose this thirst for knowledge and learning. However, it’s vital we don’t and rediscover our love in things unknown to us. It’s where our meaning and happiness will come from as our journey continues.
Gaining knowledge and fueling our curiosity will better equip you in life and ensure you’re better equipped to react to changing situations. You will have more options at your disposal. Better yet, you may even develop a Spidey (Spider-man) like sense to dangers and anticipating them before change happens.
One way to do this is create curiosity conventions. With yourself and friends you could do this by hosting each other’s blogs. Not your usual posting you would put out on your own. But, their thoughts/ideas and then writing what you learned from them. You’re helping yourself and your helping others with your curious dive in. At work, this might be a great way to shake up conference calls. Have a call with no specific purpose, just open dialogue about what’s happening in their work.
Life isn’t about finding the answers, it’s about asking the questions.
Having a curious mindset can help you overcome your fears. I finally got to run my first marathon by being curious about first a 5k, then a 10k, then 13.1 miles, and finally this past June I hit my goal of 26.2 miles. Had I gone right for the 26.2 out of the gate, I would not have found a deep passion for running that I have today. It took getting curious about each milestone, easing into the next, and then taking another leap once I had enough info to move forward.
Your story can create curiosity in others. Share it, and share it often. Make someone curious about your story and they’ll want to know the rest of it. The same idea can be said about your work life. Share the story of your work with any direct reports and peers you can. Make someone curious about your work and you might find your next promotion. Or, you could find your next teammate.
Curiosity is actually a very powerful business tool, yet so few take advantage of it. When you can find curiosity in someone else and their work it creates a collaborative spirit. It brings about cooperation and a faster bonding in teamwork with one another. It naturally inspires innovation as curiosity creates confidence in sharing with one another ideas you wouldn’t normally have the trust in each other to do.
Even if you’re in charge, you are often much more effective asking questions than giving orders.
A curious mindset will drive us to learn and encourage us to seek out new experiences. It is an accelerator in finding success in your work life when you can practice and encourage it in others. It can help you be better equipped to overcome your own inner fears and amass huge amounts of knowledge, making you an indispensable resource.
Hope the start of your holiday weekend is incredible. Take the time to create your own curiosity convention with family or friends. Love to see some comments on how that might have worked out if you would like, below this post. Thanks for reading!
✌🏻 Shawn
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