I have no special talents. I am just passionately curious.
Albert Einstein
You may have heard of the beginner’s mind – when you approach the world with the openness of a child learning things for the first time. This can best be seen when you start at a new hobby, task, or job. During the first couple of weeks, you improve rapidly. However, over time, you reach a plateau in your development as your work and life become routine, and you now know the easiest or most efficient way for how things “should” be done. You stop exploring and you lose what propelled you forward in the first place, curiosity and a hunger to learn.
In both business and sports, we see some people rising up the ranks while others grind away making little headway. This is the difference in your performance when you remain curious about the task at hand. This doesn’t mean that hard work has no role, but rather that it’s important to marry diligent work with childlike wonder.
There are many proven benefits to having a curious mind. Most importantly, it keeps you active instead of passive. You are now looking to learn about everything in your world as opposed to just reacting to it.
The learning plateau also diminishes. We remain open to new ideas and possibilities. We are now constantly looking for opportunities to grow.
Those that are curious also are more creative and have a richer enjoyment of life as they see each day, each moment, as a completely new experience to be explored.
The greatest impact embodying this has had on me has been the excitement it has brought into my life despite most of my day revolving around treatments or rest. These routines are no longer dull when I become curious about them, the pain goes away when I investigate it with openness, and my mind is no longer constricted when I’m looking at all of the incredible things around me.
How to Become Curious:
- Keep an Open Mind – Be open to learning new things, unlearn old ones, and even relearn some others. Life isn’t a straight line and your education shouldn’t be either.
- Practice Gratitude – We often don’t realize how lucky we were before we lose something. COVID-19 has undoubtedly exposed this for us all. Spend 5 minutes a day to close your eyes and slowly repeat out loud or in your head the things that you’re grateful for. This can range from a delicious meal to simply breathing. Change up what you say to work on appreciating all areas of your life.
- Continue Asking Questions – Ask “Why do I ‘know’ this?” and investigate the seemingly obvious things to see their hidden nature. Also, swallow your pride and ask the “dumb” questions. Often times you can learn a lot more about the basics.
- Reframe “Boring” Situations – Practice becoming interested in what you previously had thought was boring. Notice the small details in a situation that you might typically miss and you’ll soon find watching paint dry fascinating as you eagerly look on to see what areas will dry first.
- Expose Yourself to a Wide Range of Information – Read different kinds of books and watch documentaries. They might not be applicable to your life from a physical standpoint but nonetheless they’ll push you to expand your educational comfort zone and keep your mind on its toes.
- Journaling – Learn more about your inner workings. Putting pen to paper helps draw emotions out of yourself. Sometimes going back over what you’ve journaled about will also give you key insights into patterns and ideas you had previously not noticed.
A Final Thought:
When I was younger, my grandmother and I would go on nature walks by their house in upstate New York. We’d walk through long grass, woods, and streams, stopping to look at all the creatures and critters along the way.
On one of these nature walks we had wandered into a thick grove of trees. I remember the heavy smell of the skunk cabbage plants that littered the swampy, forest floor. We had been walking for nearly three hours when we realized we had no idea where we were. It was getting late and the sun had started to go down.
As it got darker and darker in these eerie looking woods, rather than panic and begin searching for a way out, my grandma kept me focused on being an adventuring explorer traveling through a new land. We noticed how the trees looked different in this lighting and how the forest had taken on a completely new energy in the dusk.
Rather than turning back, we continued trudging through the heavy mud and came out the other side to find a dirt road. We walked along this road for over an hour as the fireflies and mosquitos danced around us. Eventually, we found our bearings and after hiking over a golden, long grass-covered hill, we came into view of the house.
Had we stopped to turn back, we would possibly not have found our way and been stuck in the woods all night. Had we panicked, the beauty of this memory would have been overshadowed by paralyzing fear. We chose at that moment to stay curious and that made all the difference.
I now try to embody that same attitude when I face obstacles in my life. We have the choice to be overrun by panic and fear or we can dive into the dark woods ahead, curious as to what we’ll find. As you keep exploring, you’ll find the path to where you want to go and the adventure along the way will be all the better.
The mind that opens to a new idea never returns to its original size.
Albert Einstein