One of the things that I enjoy the most about hosting my Back2Basics Podcast, is that at the end of the interview I get to ask my guests: What makes you Tick?
In the 130 interviews I've done so far, I can confidently say the vast majority of my guests have mentioned at one point or another, that the curiosity to learn something new made them tick, and that it was one of the driving factors in creating the life they wanted.
I believe that Curiosity has been greatly underrated and misunderstood. I am not sure if the common expression "Curiosity Killed the Cat" has anything to do with it, but I feel that we tend to link being curious with being noisy, and while that might be an aspect of curiosity, in my opinion, is a great disservice to this incredible quality.
Oscar Wilde once said: “The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing.”. He was indeed on to something. Curiosity is one of those forces that depending on how it is used, can create great good or great harm.
Mind you, not one of my guests mentioned curiosity in a negative context. Instead, they all credited it as the force behind having come up with a new idea, visited a place they didn't even know existed, grabbed a book whose cover piqued their interest, or asked a question that got them to a breakthrough moment.
Being curious is a trait of great leaders. There would not be innovation without curiosity, and yet is a trait that is not cultivated and cherished as it should.
I am of the opinion that we are all inherently curious. Exploration is in our human DNA, that we convince ourselves that is not, is part of the problem. What many people don't realize is that a "saboteur" lives within ourselves, and when curiosity arises, its mission is to convince us that it is better to stay put than to go out and explore. You can override this dynamic by becoming aware of your curiosity and instead of dismissing it, welcome it and dedicate 10 minutes of your day to explore it. Embrace being in expansion mode. Enlarge your knowledge and your boundaries and you will be surprised with what happens next.
So I am curious, what are you curious about today?
"The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind, is Curiosity" Edmund Burke