I’m not sure if one year is better than another to choose to live curiously, but 2021 definitely felt like an appropriate year to embrace uncertainty, sit with discomfort and take active steps towards following curiosities.
For me the year started with the study of curiosity. Through an MSC in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching at UEL I embarked on reviewing relevant literature and creating and delivering a workplace curiosity intervention to measure the impact on wellbeing and creativity.
Once complete and somewhat exhausted from the ‘zoom and gloom’ of lockdown life I spent the second half of the year actively training my curiosity muscles. Choosing to work a four day week to allow for ‘Curiosity Thursdays’, I embarked on a journey of exploration and discovery. Exploring new pursuits, visiting new places and having curious conversations on varied random and interesting topics. I looked to expand my mind and broaden my horizons, to put into practice what I’d learnt about curiosity being beneficial to wellbeing and creativity.
Here are a few things I learnt along the way.
- Curiosity can be a great antidote to anxiety. There were a fair few moments of anxiety for me in 2021 and on the occasions where I remembered to lean in with curiosity rather than shut down I was able to move through them with more grace and ease. One in particular which stands out was the ‘SPSS Stand Off’ I encountered when writing my dissertation. I remember opening SPSS to start my analysis (under a very strict deadline)and having absolutely no idea what any of it meant. I honestly felt like I’d been transported into some kind of parallel universe. How on earth would I figure this out in the very few hours I had? Maybe I could shut it down and run away? A slight sense of panic arose in the moment and then I remembered that I was studying curiosity and should probably attempt to apply some of the theory here. By choosing to be curious I acknowledged the feelings of discomfort and uncertainty and decided to take steps towards better understanding the task at hand. What resources were available to help me? Perhaps I could watch a few training videos? Do I know anyone who could help? Slowly but surely I picked it up and managed to submit my dissertation (just) before the deadline. Curiosity encouraged me to move towards rather than away from fear which I found to be particularly helpful.
- Curiosity requires conscious consideration. Having worked in consumer insight for the past two decades I always thought of myself as relatively curious, but it was only when I started Curiosity Thursdays that I realised the difference intention makes. By actively choosing to be curious, and selecting something or somewhere to explore I felt a newfound sense of purpose and passion. A ‘curiosity mission’ felt entirely different to an ‘always on’ attitude of curiosity. Some people talk about productive curiosity (purpose-driven) and unproductive curiosity (endless scrolling and listening to gossip etc.) and the jury’s out for me over the extent to which you always need a purpose for your curiosity but I do think it helps to decide to be intentionally curious for a while. Curiosity Thursdays ended up being a wonderful antidote to the fast paced, narrow-focused days of the past few years. Wandering round the Museum of the Home with a creativity expert, learning to bake in a yoga studio, writing poetry with a Zen monk, discussing neuroscience with a brain supplement entrepreneur, fundraising on Carnaby Street for refugees and exploring happiness with the Dalai Lama. This intentional focus on curiosity definitely helped to broaden my horizons, enabling me to reconnect with the spaces and people around me and feel a greater sense of vitality.
- Curiosity feels frivolous vs. the never-ending to do list, but pays back in the long term. There were definitely moments this year where taking time out to actively practice being curious felt like an unnecessary indulgence. There was always so much to do. I had work to ship, deadlines to hit, targets to meet. I didn’t have time to work my curiosity muscles. I was busy! There were way more important things to do. I couldn’t possibly open more things up. I needed to close things down. As a knowledge worker like many of us I’m ultimately paid for the quality of my ideas but realised this year how little space I’ve been creating for ideas to emerge. By taking time out to actively explore and discover new places and activities, have unstructured meetings with fascinating people, free-write, walk different routes and take daily daydream breaks I was able to create space for new ideas to emerge, moving away from the narrow confines of my thinking into the broad expanse of possibilities. Over time I was able to make connections between what I’d experienced and the work I was doing, to let thoughts settle and insights emerge and to birth some new ideas.
- Curiosity facilitates purpose-driven change. Through my exploration of curiosity I’ve become increasingly interested in the questions we ask both to ourselves and the people around us. Having listened to a podcast with Warren Berger, a questionologist, I was interested in the sequencing of questions he uses to move from curiosity to exploration and experimentation. Starting with ‘why’ questions, moving to ‘what if’ and then through to ‘how’, I could see how I could make purposeful change happen, moving from thought to experiment. One question I’d been toying with for a while was ‘why do I need to live in a city to do the work I do?’, which led to a ‘what if I experiment with moving to the beach for a while?’ question, which then translated into a ‘how can I make this happen?’ inquiry. What had been a decade long distant thought was transformed into action in a relatively short space of time in this way. And through setting this up as an experiment with a set time period and criteria to consider, I then had the opportunity to reassess and readjust where necessary.
- Curiosity requires courage which requires vulnerability. One of the things which particularly fascinates me about curiosity is it’s active nature. It moves us from interest to engagement, exploration and experimentation. It quite simply helps us to get unstuck, moving from thought to action. This does require a bit of a leap though, often meaning that we’re required to throw ourselves into something when our brains don’t necessarily feel prepared or skilled enough. My brain has responded best when there has been the right balance of challenge and skill involved so as not to feel too overwhelming. What’s been interesting though is that taking a leap does require sitting with uncertainty, discomfort and not knowing. I had no idea whether I’d like living at the beach, if working part-time would work out, if I’d be able to figure out SPSS in time. In many ways I felt completely out of my comfort zone taking those leaps, regularly wondering if I should back out. It’s a bit like when you run into a freezing cold sea and there’s that moment when you dip your shoulders under and your body tenses up, your brain gets a bit of a shock and you’ve not quite acclimatized to the temperature and you wonder if you should run to the warmth of your towel and the familiarity of the sandy shore. For me this sums up taking any leap into the unknown perfectly. Not necessarily pleasant in the moment but necessary for meaningful growth.
Wishing you all a happy, healthy and curious 2022.