What We Gain From Cultivating Curiosity And What We Lose When We Don’t
- Nov 15, 2021
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 25, 2024
Written by: Traci Philips, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise
Curiosity is one of the most important human attributes. Without it, early development would be inconceivable and learning, resilience and our very survival would not be possible. When we speak of creativity and innovation, we must see that in order to develop this, we must be able to cultivate our curiosity. Although we were born with it, life experience has a way of beating it back and covering it up. As we grow and age, we begin to favor that which focuses on comfort, security and surety.
So what does it really cost us to let go of our natural inclination to be and act from a curiosity?
To begin with, let’s take happiness. How often have you chosen to hold back on something you’re curiosity and inner driver (heart and soul) was pushing you to entertain and experience because it wasn’t rational, someone else told you it wasn’t possible or allowable or you thought it was too uncertain or would create too much discomfort?
I mean, we all have done this, right?
And at what cost to our desire for experience and happiness?
We may never know, but when we ask this question, if we feel any unease within us, we know there is truth to this inquiry.
And what about some of today’s great buzz words … diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)?
The biggest threat to our ability to build diverse, equitable and inclusive environments and cultures, as I see it, is the trend of cancel culture, aka our human propensity to accept and support what is in agreement and alignment with our chosen opinions, beliefs and narratives, and to admonish what is not.
When we choose to blind ourselves from seeing, understanding or even tolerating perspectives and attitudes different from our own, we create, both within and outside ourselves, static and inflexible environments that cannot come together, grow and innovate. There exists consistent struggle and inaction.
If we cannot learn to get comfortable making room for what is different, we are simply giving lip-service to what we say we want.
So, where does the capacity to open ourselves up to truly create cultures and practices of DEI begin?
Yep! It starts, first, with being curious. In fact, we need to practice being more curious than we are “right.” We get to focus more on recognizing the spaces where we don’t know than on what we do know. his is what I like to call having an “I don’t know” mind.
When we are curious, we lean into what is new, different and possible … sometimes even controversial. We trade our ego surety and security statements like “this is …,” “I know ...” and even “science has proven ...” for more expansive possibilities beyond what we have ever experienced, known or understood before. We can begin with statements like “this appears to be, but maybe there is something more …,” “this is what I have come to know, but perhaps there is something beyond what I have experienced” and “what if …?”
When we learn to cultivate curiosity, we begin to discover things we have never seen before, because we step away from our myopic focus and addiction to only acknowledging what we do know, what we have experienced and what is within our comfort zones.
If a toddler was only interested in staying comfortable, (s)he would never learn to walk. The United States of America would never have been founded had it not been for a small group of people who were curious about what was possible beyond what they had come to know and experience.
So, I invite you to consider this in your own life. Where have you been choosing comfort over curiosity, surety over being inquisitive about what you don’t know? And how can you begin to cultivate more curiosity?
I think you will be surprised when you do this that you will discover a deeper capacity to create clarity in your life. This is always the irony of releasing the need to cling to what we know. With this ability to clear the way, you will see all sorts of new possibilities opening up to you. Possibilities that have always been there waiting for you to realize them.
Traci Philips, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine As an Executive Leadership & Performance Strategist, Traci Philips supports visionary business owners and corporate executives to learn and practice better communication, resolution strategies, decision-making, and leading during times of change and when the stakes are high. A three-year stint co-facilitating a men's transformational program for industry leaders incarcerated in Federal Prison taught Traci more than she could ever have learned elsewhere about high-stakes leadership and the cost of bad decision-making. This experience fueled a passion in her to help top leaders learn what they needed to know so they wouldn't end up losing what matters most. Her ultimate goal is to support her clients to live authentically and lead powerfully by creating more awareness about who they are, how they want to be seen, and what legacy they want to leave behind. Traci is the co-host of Eavesdrop in the Moment, a bi-weekly podcast that discusses current trends and leadership. Her book, Looking In: Discover, Define and Align the True Value of Your Life, Leadership and Legacy is helping leaders around the globe increase their confidence and self-identity to meet leadership demands and their personal performance potential.
