Being curious
From an early age, we ask questions.
“Why is the sky blue?”
“Why are Grandpa’s hands wrinkly?”
“When did you meet Mommy?”
Teacher encourage asking questions too.
That’s how we learn.
All of us.
We push buttons on things that have buttons.
We all do it.
Then something happens
We notice others aren’t asking questions.
Perhaps we misunderstood something that everyone else understood completely.
So we second guess ourselves.
Our thoughts become ones showered with negativity.
With harmful self-talk.
Thoughts like, “You are so stupid!”
“Why would you even ask such a dumb question?”
“How slow are you?”
“Loser!”
Like anyone would, we stop asking questions.
Hoping to just blend back into the shadows.
And the questions end
Silence becomes our voice.
In school or at work, we continue to fail.
Time and time again.
We don’t get it.
I once had an Algebra 2 teacher in high school who taught the class as if you already knew that kind of math.
If you didn’t know it, he expected you to know it.
Afraid to ask any question (but desperately trying to avoid the really dumb ones), I never asked a single one.
And I paid the price for it too…
I got a “D” in that class.
So what do we learn?
Nothing.
Our self confidence plummets as our unworthiness keeps up company.
Even the people we ask really good questions to seem to take offense to being asked a question.
Not because we are questioning them, but we want to know more about the process.
When we don’t learn, we don’t grow.
When we don’t grow, we become stale.
Things become boring and colorless.
Life becomes nothing more than an existence.
If we would dare to call it that.
It is mundane, to say the least.
How do get away from that?
Ask the question.
Even if everyone else gets it.
Whether it sounds dumb or not.
Chances are someone else wants to know too.
Don’t be intimidated by what you don’t know.
Understand that learning makes you better.
How can making yourself better be a bad thing?
(Only the people who are threatened by your being better think it is a bad thing.)
Allow yourself to be curious
Fall in love with what you don’t know.
Seek the unknown and unexplainable.
Explore something new and allow yourself to be a beginner.
Wonder about everything you cannot see as much as you wonder about what you can.
The mystic surprises left yet undiscovered want to make your acquaintance.
Give yourself permission to become a student.
5 Ways to Fall in Love with Curiosity
Admit you don’t know everything
A quote by Bruce Lee reads, “A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can from a wise answer.” Set your pride and ego down and allows yourself to be in the presence of the rest of us. None of knows all there is to know. We knows bits and pieces. On occasion, we put a few of them together that make something pretty remarkable. Allow yourself to be the student.
Don’t just look…see
We “look” at things every day. Some we really see while others we just glance over and move on. The fast pace of technology requires it. But when was the last time you really “saw” something? When we saw the vibrant colors of the rainbow after a small shower…When we see the tenderness in a lovely touch between two people…When we see a small act of kindness radiant into the hearts of everyone who saw it.
“More” isn’t a bad word
Some people will always want more. But not in the good way. Knowing how something works instead of just knowing that it does stirs a creative spark in each of us. In turn, that spark ignites other parts of life that quickly come to life as well. More information to know how something works or learn more about someone’s story connects us through the knowledge and emotions we otherwise would have missed.
Variety is a good thing
Every school offers a lot of different classes to help us become more rounded and experience more things. Maybe math isn’t our thing, but we really find a liking to art or reading. I cannot imagine taking 8 hours of straight English every day for 180 days. Times 13 years. Exposure to a different things makes us better able to adapt to the world around us. Maybe we aren’t history buffs, but we learn something interesting about Al Capone or Mother Teresa. We can experts in certain fields but being well-rounded is a good thing.
Get your answer
We have all heard the phrases, “There is no such thing as a dumb question.” or “The only dumb question is the one you never ask.”
By admission, asking questions tells others that you don’t know something.
To some, that might be viewed as a weakness.
I used to think so too.
Remember my Algebra 2 class?
Almost failed it and if I had, I would have not been able to play on one of my teams for a semester in high school.
Looking back, it wasn’t worth it. I just barely skated by.
In that case, I would have had to deal with the consequences, but most of the time, we are just merely gaining information.
Crossing the threshold to get what we need or want can be kind of intimidating.
But the simple truth is this…
You will never get your answer if you never ask the question.
You may not get the answer you wanted or expected, but at least you don’t have to think about asking the question any more.
Leaving you more time to move onto the next thing that peaks your interest.
When curiosity comes calling again and invites you to fall in love.
Michelle A. Homme 2017 ©
