Curiosity Breeds Awareness (And I’m Quietly Confident It Didn’t Kill The Cat)
Over the weekend I completely rearranged my living area and it was fascinating to watch our cat as she entered the home as if she had entered a stranger’s home. As I watched her start to curiously explore the changes, it reminded me of our big house move only 18 months ago in October of 2016. We did all the right things you’re meant to do when moving a cat - we confined her to one room for a set period, and slowly introduced her to new rooms one at a time over several weeks, until she was eventually allowed to explore outside.
I remember back then, watching her with fascination, as she explored each room for the first time. Just as she did on the weekend, full of curiosity as she cautiously approached different objects; touching, sniffing, jumping, rubbing up against them. All the while learning how to interact and react with the objects in the room; what’s stable, what isn’t stable, what’s safe and what’s not, jumping in fright when startled but having another attempt to sniff, touch, jump, and balance until she fully understood her environment and how she fit within it. So, after 16 years and multiple house moves, curiosity certainly hasn’t killed our pussycat. It has however, INCREASED HER AWARENESS.
And just like cats, so do we build awareness and learn from being curious. From the time we’re born, curiosity is how we learn; WE…
assess and take risks – we learn,
explore and experiment – we learn,
try and fail – we learn,
make mistakes – we learn,
challenge our boundaries – we learn,
challenge others boundaries – we learn,
succeed – we learn.
Through continual curiosity about the environment in which you live in you increase your own awareness of who you are and how you fit into this world; how you personally interact and react with the people and objects around you. And it’s through curiosity that you learn your boundaries and the boundaries of others, your likes and dislikes, your strengths and challenges - this is how we learn, it’s how we grow as individuals!
It’s also how you learn what's ‘appropriate’ – how to behave, when to speak, how to speak, when and who to challenge, when and who to question and be curious. And sadly, for many of us, it’s through this conditioning we often learn to STOP being curious, as we conform to our environment. Why is this sad? Because when we stop being curious, we stop learning about ourselves, we stop building our awareness- which ultimately means we cease to grow, adapt and change; we cease to learn how to improve and be better versions of ourselves.
“I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious”
Take a moment to imagine if all individuals conformed to their conditioning and ceased to be curious – how advanced do you think humanity would be? Would we have ever made it to the moon? Would our mode of transport still be a choice between walking or horse? How progressed and developed, as a species, do you think we would have reached? I give thanks to both our historic and modern-day “curiosity adventurers” such as Einstein, the Wright Brothers, Steve Jobs, and Elon Musk just to name a few.
Oh, and when you’re curious you open yourself to endless opportunities not only through increased awareness but by:
Developing a growth mind set by striving to know more, do more, be better.
Improving your resilience as you don’t see mistakes and failure as a setback, but a way to improve and learn.
Improved connection and relationships through become more accepting of others.
Better decision making as you continually learn your boundaries, values and limits.
Increased confidence and self-esteem through continual insight, learning and development.
I know I could benefit from being more curious, so let’s start being a “curiosity adventurer” today – what’s stopping you?
5 ways you can spark your curiosity and improve your awareness:
Try New Things - share new experiences with others, explore the world around you and test them out for size. How did it make you feel? What did you learn about yourself? About others? About geography, or physics, or connection?
Always Ask Questions - never assume you know everything or what comes next or what the answer might be or what the result might be – channel your inner child and ask ‘why’, ‘why’, ‘but why’ until the rabbit hole goes no further.
Never Settle For The First Response - you will learn nothing if you settle for the first response people give you. Ask ‘why, what, who, when and how’ - see point 2.
Encourage Others To Step Outside Their Comfort Zone - learning and growing is always more fun and effective when you have others to bounce ideas off, share experiences, test and learn. And let’s face it, it’s kind of a security blanket knowing you’re not in it alone.
Mix Things Up – don’t get complacent: as human beings we’re creatures of habit. We go to the same coffee shop, the same café for lunch, the same supermarkets, even travel the same route to work every day. What opportunities for learning and experiencing the world differently are you missing out on? You’d be surprised at what you might see, do, and learn about you or others just by getting your morning coffee from a different shop or taking a different route to work. BUT, you must be mindful and present.
“Around here we don’t look backwards for very long … we keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things because we’re curious … and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths”