Are you curious?
With constant access to the Google machine (that’s what I call my iPhone. I think I stole the phrase from Joe Scarborough), the HOW of pretty much anything is just a few clicks away.
How do I…? Fill in the blank with anything, and you’ll get pages and answers.
But how do you know how to finish that question? How do you know what you don’t yet know? Finding the answers is simple, but knowing the questions to ask can be the hard part.
So the question is – how do you know what your choices are? Life isn’t a multiple-choice test. You don’t get to choose from options A, B, C, or D. Rather, there are seemingly infinite possibilities. So, where do you start?
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Kids are constantly asked this question, and they exist in a realm where any answer can be a good one. Anything and everything can make sense to them. They can see it and picture it and imagine it. In the vast array of possibilities, where kids make millions of dollars playing video games and opening up toys (if you haven’t experienced the world of “surprise eggs,” be thankful), how do you even begin to know your options? Fifty years ago, we would have expected a standard list of a doctor, teacher, nurse, baseball player, movie star, etc. But nowadays, that’s not even the tip of the iceberg.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” EVERYTHING!
As adults, I’m not sure we look at the world with the same wild wonder and amazement as our children. We judge and analyze the things we see. We project ten steps down the road to see if it might turn into something “real,” productive, or logical. What if we didn’t do that? What if we just explored the world with the same curiosity as children? But where do we start?
What do we do to find new options and understand the breadth of what’s even possible? What if we looked to our kids for some inspiration on how to see the world through a lens of curiosity?
The answers often aren’t complicated – read things, listen to things (anything really – podcasts, audiobooks, the radio…things where people are talking and sharing thoughts that you might not otherwise hear). Ask questions and go places where people are talking or doing things and listen or observe (not in a creepy way). Be curious, without judgment. Don’t judge what they’re doing, don’t judge what it would mean if you did some variation of it.
I just started reading Jenna Kutcher’s new book “How Are You, Really?” She shares about putting ourselves into small action, where we are, so we can figure out what we want and how we might get there.
“If you want to be somewhere, something, or someone, but the process of getting there looks a thousand miles long, get as close as you can. The gist is this: intentionally place yourself in the proximity of what you’d like to try.”
You have to put yourself in proximity to things. Get close and be open! Be curious, and stop judging or jumping to the end and imagining what it’ll have to look like. You don’t necessarily have to know what you want or jump all the way in, but you have to be open and willing and stand in a spot where new things might be possible. You don’t have to know everything, but you have to know that there might be more and be open to letting some of it in!
No one is telling you what your choices are. You have this unique opportunity in this digital world to try out all the things and create your own endless multiple-choice, so fill it up with all the options you want. There’s no wrong answer!
