Reconnecting with your curiosity

22 Feb Reconnecting with your curiosity

Curiosity is the seed to innovation. I believe that with my whole heart. In fact, my whole being if I’m being literal.

If we believe this to be true, or maybe even entertain it as a temporary hypothesis, then it’s important to encourage people to reconnect with their curiosity. Unfortunately, many people have learnt to disconnect from their curiosity as a way of survival. The good news is that in today’s world with so much disruption, change and uncertainty setting the tone for our organisations, I see how companies would like employees to reconnect with that innate curiosity. This is fantastic.

I wish that I could say it’s a quick switch that people are able to turn back on.

Now if you’ve grown up in an environment where your curiosity has been stifled e.g. where you have been told to “stop asking so many questions” or labelled as the “difficult one” in the classroom, you can understand why reconnecting with your curiosity is something that requires work. It’s there, but you need to learn to fall in love with your curiosity again.

Here are a few ways that you can reconnect with that beautiful, childlike, exploratory curiosity:

• Find something you love doing – you might find it’s easier to ask questions with a hobby or a passion project that you love doing.
• Show yourself some love – gratitude and appreciation are essential when talking to ourselves. Give yourself a pat on the back when you do ask questions.
• Be kind to yourself – you’ll need time to grow back into your natural, curious self. Don’t judge yourself harshly if this doesn’t happen overnight.  Cut yourself some slack.
• Quiet your mind – curiosity and mindfulness go hand in hand. Take time out to be still for a few minutes and allow the questions to surface in your mind.
• Record and reflect – capture your questions somewhere. Reflect on the quality of questions which you have asked.  Do this with yourself and a trusted friend or mentor who might give you ideas on how to tweak the question going forward.
• Practice makes permanent – the more questions you ask, the more comfortable you will become with your curiosity. This is how you embed the habit.

Do you have other ways that help you connect with your curiosity?

Please do share. We love hearing from you.