Today's Saturday • 7 mins read
“Follow your passion” often points in the wrong direction.
Following your passion can narrow your focus, forcing you to miss out on other valuable opportunities. Moreover, passions can change over time, and what excites you today may not hold the same appeal in the future.
What works better, then?
Curiosity, openness, and consistency. They let you explore more things, which can lead you to success and happiness in ways you didn’t expect.
Let’s discuss the curiosity part.
“Success requires curiosity.”
Why Curiosity Matters for Achieving Success
Curiosity helps us achieve more success. Here’s how:
- Encourages Lifelong Learning: Curiosity fosters a mindset of continuous improvement. It motivates you to learn new things and get better at the ones you already know. So you keep growing personally and professionally. Without curiosity, your efforts to learn and grow can be ill-intentioned and ineffective.
- Enhances Problem-Solving Skills: A curious mindset nudges us to ask questions and open up to different perspectives. This leads to innovative solutions and better decision-making. Curious people are better able to learn new skills, try out fresh ideas, adapt to challenges, and take smart risks to achieve their goals.
- Boosts Adaptability: Curiosity boosts your courage and psychological flexibility, helping you face change and uncertainty with an open mind. This makes it easier to adjust to new situations and challenges in your careers and lives. Transitions do not frustrate you anymore; rather, they inspire you to see the new unknown as a place full of possibilities and creative solutions.
- Builds Healthier Cultures: Curiosity helps a culture of diversity and inclusivity. Being curious about the different-others builds empathy and patience. This strengthens your personal and professional relationships, which then leads to better collaboration and teamwork.
- Increases Motivation and Engagement: Curiosity fuels your intrinsic motivation, making you more engaged in your work and pursuits. This heightened engagement can lead to greater achievement and satisfaction. This study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that curiosity positively influences our choices; people prefer to learn something new rather than stick with the familiar, which then boosts their confidence and sense of accomplishment.
- Promotes Resilience: Resilience is the ability to bounce back from failures and unexpected results. A curious mindset lets you see setbacks as lessons: what did not work, and what other ways need to be tried. This helps you keep a positive mindset and bounce back stronger.
Why We Lose Curiosity As We Grow Up
Curiosity is a natural instinct. As children, we brim with curiosity, but it fades as we age. This is why:
- Our brains learn new ways to learn, which can overshadow our natural curiosity.
- Social influences shape our decision-making, making us more cautious than curious.
- We are less open to new information than children are because we already have ideas about it.
However, we can cultivate curiosity as a character trait. Read on.
How To Grow Your Curiosity
- Get Outside Your Comfort Zone: Tom Cruise says, “Don’t be afraid to be afraid.” We can’t be like him, but we can use his words as inspiration to push ourselves out of our comfort zones in small ways. Simple actions, like taking a different route to work or trying a new coffee flavor, can fire our curiosity and desire for new experiences. Little daily changes also break the monotony that stifles curiosity.
- Embrace Life’s Uncertainty: Not everything is definite, and that’s okay. Try some things you want to do but aren’t sure if you should (of course, with all proper precautions). See the fear of the unknown as an opportunity to learn about the unknown. Let yourself live for a while without worrying about uncertainty.
- Have New Experiences: Try something outside your usual routine, like visiting a new place, taking a different route to work, or trying a new hobby. Travel to new places, whether near or far, to ignite your curiosity. Unfamiliar environments stimulate your desire to learn and discover. Even visiting a local museum or a new neighborhood can spark your hunger for exploration. Novel experiences can stimulate your curiosity and open your mind to new learning (Kahneman, “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” 2001).
- Keep Learning New Things: Make continuous learning a priority. Even dedicating just 20 minutes a day to learning something new, like a language, can help develop your curiosity. The pursuit of knowledge keeps your mind engaged and open to new ideas. Also, take time to reflect on what you learned. It deepens your understanding and fuels further curiosity.
- Connect with Curious People: Surround yourself with individuals who exhibit curiosity. Engaging with curious minds can inspire you to ask questions and explore new topics.
- Ask Questions: Cultivate a habit of asking open-ended questions about the world around you. Saw a picture of the Milky Way on social media? Explore some questions on it. This simple practice can increase your level of curiosity about new topics. Research suggests many of our beliefs and how we understand the world as adults come from what we hear from other people (Harris & Koenig, 2006).
- Read Widely: Diversify your reading material. It may seem difficult, but try reading different genres, subjects, authors. Exposure to various perspectives can ignite curiosity and inspire new interests. Reading diverse materials can expose you to new ideas and perspectives, fostering curiosity (Mar & Oatley, “The function of fiction is the stimulation of the imagination,” 2008).
- Converse With Diverse: Talk to people with different backgrounds or viewpoints. Listen to their stories and experiences. It will broaden your view of the world and spark your curiosity about their lives and ideas.
- Practice Mindfulness: Being present in the moment can help you notice details you might usually overlook. Mindfulness encourages you to observe your surroundings and ask questions about what you see, hear, and feel, fostering a curious mindset.
Definition of Curiosity
The American Psychological Association (APA) dictionary defines curiosity as:
“The impulse or desire to investigate, observe, or gather information, particularly when the material is novel or interesting. This drive appears spontaneously in nonhuman animals and in young children, who use sensory exploration and motor manipulation to inspect, bite, handle, taste, or smell practically everything in the immediate environment.”
There are two main types of curiosity:
- Perceptual curiosity: The primitive type of curiosity that we have when we feel the need to fill gaps in our knowledge, or immediately solve some problem that catches us off guard. Like, finding out what’s on the other side of a hole in a wall, or who the culprit is in a murder mystery.
- Epistemic curiosity: This type of curiosity comes from a deep desire to understand and learn. You seek knowledge for its own sake, driven by an inner desire to explore an unfamiliar idea or skill. You do it for the love of learning, not to solve a problem. Say, it might lead you to learn a new language without any pressing reason to do so.
We need both types to have a happy and productive life.
Final Words
The key to unlocking curiosity lies in letting go of expectations.
One of our biggest pitfalls to success is placing high expectations on our actions. You may feel drained if your efforts don’t live up to these expectations, even when pursuing something you’re passionate about.
This is where curiosity triumphs. It drives us to work, experiment, and learn for the sake of knowledge itself, free from the need for immediate rewards or profits.
So, embrace a curious mindset, and watch as greater success comes your way!
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√ Also Read: How Curious Are You? Take This Fun Quick Test Now!
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