What can Curiosity do for you?

5 ways curiosity can enhance your life

Sometimes the smallest changes or additions can have the biggest impact. That’s how I think of curiosity.

A little bit of curiosity can go a long way, because it is a mindset that impacts how you engage with the world.

There will always be more to learn about the world and of course there is always more to learn about yourself.

So how do you build your curiosity muscle?

Start asking questions that you don’t know the answers to. Allow yourself to wonder, what if…? Be open to different kinds of information, people and experiences.

Do this and you could become a lifelong learner. Become a lifelong learner and you’ll experience five distinct benefits.

#1 Have more energy: curiosity – the secret of eternal youth(fullness)!

Curiosity is the antidote to aging. You can see why if you hang out with children. They’re always enquiring and wanting to know about all manner of things plus they’re excited to learn and engaged with their world.

The act of being curious will stimulate your brain. This is energizing and engaging. The more energy you put into being curious the more energy you’ll find you have.

This is true not just looking out on the world but also when it comes to taking stock of the way you are in yourself. There are always opportunities to grow or reinvent the person you were yesterday or even five minutes ago. This is how you create not just the life you want but the way you want to be in yourself.

#2 Become more creative – your potential has no limits

Since we don’t have all the answers and there is always more to explore, it’s a smart move to explore beyond your world and get curious about other people’s ideas and their creativity.

Because you are exposed to novel concepts and other ways of living you get to have more options. Sometimes you will also be inspired and in turn become more creative.

As you become aware that there are really multiple worlds inside this one world you become aware of just how many choices are open to. It helps you be more innovative and create a life of your own drawing on things you might never have known about had you not been curious.

#3 Create your sense of reality – see the world as brand new

Since our view of the world is constructed by our maps of reality and not reality itself, we need to remember that we can make our life heaven or hell pretty much on a daily basis by our thoughts and the meaning we make of our experience. Luckily we don’t have to be able to change the world to be able to change our internal world.

When you look at the world with renewed curiosity you’re more likely to challenge your old assumptions and the current status quo. It’s a natural result of seeing the world afresh. In the process you get to refresh yourself.

#4 Wake-up your awareness

Some years ago I saw a cartoon of a man on his deathbed saying “I wish I’d bought more crap,”

I have seen that crap in many guises; how people chase money, status and possessions and end up missing out on a fulfilling life. This is much less likely to happen if you’re curious about what makes a life well-lived? If you’re asking questions that guide you toward what really matters to you, your curiosity could save you from a life of empty ‘success’. Instead you’ll be focusing on what’s really fulfilling to you.

#5 Identify your identity – get to know yourself better

The more curious you are the more you learn what really interests you. In the process you can come to a fuller understanding of what you’re all about. Curiosity makes people more adventurous. On the other hand, if you never try you’ll never know – and you’ll probably not have so much of a sense of who you are or could become.

How to understand a human life?  Does a life unfold? Are there phases or chapters?  And if so where are you on this journey? Such existential curiosity can help shape anyone’s life because it’s a way of stepping back and deciding what it’s all about for you.

Doing this can help you decide what you want to have more of and less of in your life as you go forward. So you can begin to shape your future. As you do so you also begin to shape the future you.

And that future is just about to begin…