ABC Always Be Curious

Benefits & Risks

Curiosity the "strong desire to know or learn something" is a driver for physical, emotional and psychological growth, physical survival (those who are curious tend to be more resilient) and often for career success. As Einstein said, "“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” Curiosity helps build better EQ, improves our happiness, can strengthen our relationships and increase our creativity.

But there are risks to being curious, as Walt Disney pointed out "When you're curious, you find lots of interesting things to do." And Dorothy Parker observed, "The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity."

So if curiosity is so useful to us, how do we improve it?

How to build your curiosity

Get diverse inputs

1. Ask your outer circle for podcast or book or course recommendations. Pay attention to what interests you and follow that interest (but mix it up occasionally)

2. Hang out with people who have a different point of view to you

3. Play games - strategy games are a great way to start shifting your mindset - a precursor to curiosity

4. Browse a bookstore or library

5. Read a different newspaper / new source. How is it different from your usual source?

6. Skip TV for a few days and use the time to experiment with 1-5 above

Embrace the uncertainty of not knowing and use it as a compass of exploration

When you find you have a gap in your knowledge, close it. It might be a wiki page, a call to a friend, a book to skim or read, or a podcast to listen to. But learn a little more.

Ask open ended questions

Ask them of the people around you: Tell me more, help me understand, What do you think about? and,

Ask them of yourself: How am I feeling? What about this inspires me? What is causing me to resist this?

I'm curious as to what you think...