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We all understand the value of learning. Whether through a formal, structured course delivered by experts or informal, self-guided discovery, acquiring new knowledge is rewarding. It expands our mind, increases our knowledge, strengthens our skills, and drives personal growth.
But intentional learning is often seen as a young person’s game. While we continue to learn important lessons throughout our lives, this is usually by circumstance, not design. What, how, and when we learn is generally guided by coincidence and experience, rather than genuine interest or passion.
For most people, this passive relationship with learning is established early and consistently reinforced throughout childhood and adolescence. We are required to learn specific things at specific times, and teaching methods are standardized, designed to be as broadly applicable as possible. We are rewarded for compliance and graded on our performance within rigid structures, rather than encouraged to question and explore.
This stifles curiosity and, when we move beyond the framework of formal education, our learning understandably becomes less purposeful. We relax into our comfort zone, resisting change and uncertainty, favoring familiarity. We acquire new knowledge and skills only out of necessity and usually view the learning process as a chore.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. You can choose to reignite your curiosity, to rediscover your passion for knowledge and interest in the world around you. Through practice, you can redevelop your inquisitiveness and reap the many personal and professional benefits it provides.
What it Means to be Curious
Being curious is a desire to know more. It’s an openness to new concepts, ideas, and ways of doing things. It’s a willingness to not only listen to opposing viewpoints but genuinely and actively explore their logic and validity.
Curiosity is the foundation of lifelong learning. It’s what drives you to ask questions, clarify details, and expand your understanding. It’s more than just a quest for information, it’s a compulsion to challenge your beliefs and push beyond the known and comfortable.
Whether it presents as a deep interest in a specific subject or a broad interest in the world, curiosity fuels exploration. It compels you to understand how things work and why things are the way they are. It also inspires innovation, enabling you to identify potential alternatives and improvements, or even new approaches to old issues.
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An Examined Life
Curiosity has been linked to beneficial outcomes ranging from higher life satisfaction to increased creativity and enhanced memory. It requires adaptability and mental flexibility that can help build resilience and improve mental health. It also drives personal growth, positioning challenges and changes as opportunities for learning and improvement.
Our thinking naturally becomes more rigid over time, as we increasingly pre-judge situations based on existing beliefs and previous experiences. This leads to stagnation, as we subconsciously pursue the familiar and avoid the new and different. It also causes frustration, as the status quo becomes harder to maintain when the world is constantly changing around us.
Curiosity helps prevent this, encouraging us to actively seek out new experiences and perspectives. This builds empathy and keeps us engaged with our friends and family, and the world around us. It also reduces resistance and friction, propelling us forward as we eagerly adapt to new concepts and practices.
A Curious Career
In the modern workplace, certainty can be misleading. Change is the only constant, and adaptability is required to stay up to date with the latest tools and techniques. In this environment, a curious mindset is crucial to identifying opportunities, moving with the trends, and keeping pace with innovation.
Curiosity also improves the quality and effectiveness of your leadership. The more questions you ask of your team members and colleagues, the more perspectives you hear. This means more problems are identified, more potential solutions are explored, and better decisions are made.
Fostering curiosity in the workplace requires commitment to constant improvement and continuous learning. Usually achieved through informal engagement, workshopping, and information sharing, this can also be pursued through formal, structured training. For example, an online EdD higher education can be a meaningful way to deepen expertise while staying engaged with evolving ideas and practices.
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5 Habits of Highly Curious People
While it comes naturally to some, curiosity is a practice that can be adopted and developed through intentional actions. Studies have shown that there are a range of ways to effectively enhance your natural curiosity.
If you would like to develop a more curious mindset, here are a few things you should try:
- Ask follow-up questions: When discussing or researching a topic, once you’ve answered your initial query, ask the next logical question. This helps you dive deeper into the subject matter, allowing you to uncover additional detail and challenge any assumptions. For maximum effect, ensure follow-up questions are open-ended, requiring more than a “yes” or “no” answer.
- Explore your interests: Identify the topics and activities that naturally intrigue you and delve deeper into them by consulting experts and joining like-minded communities. Your natural inclination and enthusiasm should make it easier to deepen your expertise or broaden your skill base.
- Seek new interests: Apply the tactics you learned while exploring your existing interests to identify and pursue new areas of study. Cultivate a beginner’s mindset, approaching the new subject matter and perspectives openly, with enthusiasm, and without assumptions.
- Challenge your biases: When faced with a decision, reflect on your natural inclination and the assumptions and preconceptions that support it. Actively work to explore alternatives, ask “obvious” questions about the basic details, and consider what changes if your assumptions are incorrect.
- Embrace feedback: When receiving critique, view it as an opportunity to grow and improve, not a threat. Consider whether the comments provided are constructive and, if so, what you can learn from them.
Whatever tactics you use to boost your curiosity, it’s important to commit. Read widely, seek out new experiences, and pursue knowledge and continuous learning.
