Curiosity is lying in wait for every secret.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I was thinking that if Yoda and ET had a love child, that child’s catch phrase might just be: ?

Be Curious

Sure curiosity may have killed the cat, but even Jack Skellington was happy to celebrate that thought.? Was that cheeky? Just roll with it.? I want to talk about the latest mantra that will be plastered on the wall above my computer, heck I’d even considering tattooing it to my wrist so I see it every day, but alas I’m not the tattooing type and eventually, I imagine, I would be annoyed by it and rebel, but that’s another story.

As entrepreneurs and freelancers we are always selling, yes it’s the worst part of what we do and yet it occupies endless hours of our journey. It can create a rut that is quite difficult to escape. Trust me, as I practice the art of letting go I expect to be tripping a fair amount over my words and thoughts.

I get it, it's the voice deep down inside of us screaming for attention to share how awesome we are, while that process may work perfectly for some folks, I envy you, for the rest of us, perhaps leading and following through with curiosity is a better tact. ?

Trust me as I write this and as I think on it, I feel like I’m solving a Rubics Cube in my head, wrapping my thoughts around all the curious questions and meditations I should have, solving a mystery without any clues. (Thank you Bob Seager)?

So perhaps this is where research comes in handy. Research should create questions and curiosities right? If so inspired, it can also introduce humility. Ideally you are connecting with a person who you admire, ideally their work elevates you. But what of your desire to elevate their work?? What if your tact is to be an asset to them??

This is often where we go to a darker place, a place where we have a lot of, why and what questions? But instead of asking we answer unprompted.? Because let’s face it, what we do is pretty darn good and what we offer, in our mind, exceeds what they are doing. So why are they only involved with X and not us?? And how can we convince them to work with us??

These thoughts like mosquitos will attack you and demand your attention, buzzing around your head and finding a way to suck your life blood and demand to be scratched. Oh and scratch we do…We find a way to launch into our itch, pitch, pitching and itching til it’s raw! And it’s only after, maybe seconds or minutes, but soon enough we realize we may not be any better off, that the pitch wasn’t asked for, that the itch is now a wound. The conversation has ended, we have no idea what they need and the proverbial damage is done.

And this is where we find ourselves coming full circle: Being curious should be relatively easy, like turning on a fan, it can be the wind of change in all future conversations, just as a low knot wind will deter mosquitos, a low effort case of curiosity can make the interaction that much more pleasant and offer the question before you state the answer. So picture a fan in your mind, the switch says, BE CURIOUS and the wind that fan creates is: What Do They Need? I wager there is a handful of ways this question can be presented until they offer the question to your answer.

As I come to my meditative conclusion I am extending my mantra to be voiced by?

The Most interesting man in the World:

Stay Curious My Friends

and ask them?

What Do They Need?