By Freelancer and Books Author Denise Turney
Imagine this, you’re walking down the sidewalk, approaching a four-year old with her parents. While you walk, you hear the child ask question after question. “What are those blocks over there?” you overhear the child ask her parents.
“They’re steps,” the mother answers.
“Why do they go down?”
“So, people can get to the shops below the restaurant,” the father says.
“Shops downstairs. Why are they down there?”
Do You Ask Questions
Several feet beyond the family, you hear the child asking more questions. At first, you laugh. Then, you remember how curious you once were. And you wonder why you aren’t equally as curious now.
What you might not know is how advantageous it is to be curious. Topping the list of “curiosity benefits” is the openness to learn. You sure won’t be curious about life experiences, situations or people you think you already know everything about.
Continual learning is just one of the benefits associated with being curious. Discovering the cause of physical, emotional or mental unrest is another benefit. Become curious and, instead of assuming that you know why you’re coughing or why you’ve been feeling tired for hours a day, you’ll start exploring the cause.
Considering the above example, you might retrace your steps, looking for dietary or lifestyle changes that might have ignited the coughing or fatigue. Even more, without spending a dime, you might reverse those changes and monitor how you respond.
Save Time, Save Money
Just one instance of this could save you years of professional research, not to mention medical bills. Pay attention and you could spot patterns and cycles that you make for yourself. For example, if you’re curious enough, you might notice that you gain 10 to 15 pounds each winter, only to drop the extra weight during late spring and summer.
Decide not to gain weight and you’ll know to become more aware of what you eat and drink and how much you move your body during days when there’s less sunlight. As you can see, advantages associated with being curious can set off dominoes, going from one good thing to another.
What Being Curious Could Gain You
Like the little girl asking her parents about steps, once you become curious, your openness to understand strengthens. More advantages gained from being curious include:
- Happier more open mood
- Improved energy flow
- Increased ability to emphasize
- Mental breakthroughs
- Better relationships
- More effective communication skills
- Active versus a passive mind
- Flow of new, exciting ideas
- Ability to spot good opportunities
Harvard Business Publishing shares that, in response to a PwC survey, “Alan D. Wilson, then CEO of McCormick & Company, responded that those who “are always expanding their perspective and what they know – and have that natural curiosity – are the people that are going to be successful.’”1
You Don’t Know Everything
If you’re looking for easy ways to become more curious, accept that you don’t consciously know everything about anything. As a start, how many lines are going vertically and horizontally across your hands? How many specks of dirt are on the earth within a quarter mile of where you live, speck by speck?
You’ve walked around with your hands for years and probably don’t know how many lines are on your hands. Somehow that answer is right in front of you. Yet, you may not once have become curious enough to explore it.
How To Become Curious
Therefore, accept that you don’t know everything about anything. It’s a good way to welcome curiosity. Just like you did when you were a child, ask questions. Now that you’re an adult, you can ask questions without fearing that you’ll be rebuked for being too curious. Other ways to stay curious include:
- Appreciate what you see and experience
- Accept that things don’t have to repeat
- Explore when you start to feel bored
- Make learning fun, turn it into a game
- Visit museums
- Read diverse books written by authors from diverse backgrounds
The Centre for Educational Neuroscience shares that we learn the most between birth and three years.2 Not a surprise when you consider those are the years when we are very curious.
But that doesn’t mean that you have to stop letting curiosity spark exploration, failures and ongoing learning. Who knows? A part of you might be very open to become curious like the girl mentioned at the start of this article.
Explore! Have Fun!
Even if people don’t answer your questions, you can explore and get answers from the environment. What you might not do is become bored, stuck or jaded. Instead of thinking that there’s nothing new to experience, you might stir an interest to travel, visit new countries and introduce yourself to different cultures.
Life might take on a brighter hue, all because you became curious in safe ways. As you ask questions, people might recognize that you don’t think you know it all. They also might enjoy engaging with you in conversation, potentially building a bridge to better relationships. This is what happens to the girl named Rosetta as she realizes there’s so much more for her to learn!
Other life skills that kids teach that build and strengthen relationships include teamwork, engagement through fun, conflict resolution and using play to build friendships. Tenacity is another life skill that kids teach. You can learn more about this with your kids in Rosetta The Talent Show Queen.
Yet, building life skills often starts with curiosity. It’s no secret that kids can ask the same question repeatedly until they feel they’ve received a sincere answer. Although they face challenges and disappointment, kids will keep going until they achieve a desired result. They teach other and adults countless and different way to approach life.
Resources:
- The Importance Of Being Curious – Harvard Business Publishing
- Most learning happens in the first 3 years | Centre for Educational Neuroscience