Curiosity Is The New Intelligence

I am a lifelong lover of learning and creating. Growing up, when I wasn’t writing stories, poetry and essays, I was designing or building something online. I remember sitting at my desk at work in my mid-twenties, already seven years into a career working on another cycle of the same project and realizing I was starting to lose my creativity. I worked in a creative role but the way my mind works, my personal growth was stalled doing the same thing year after year.

Creative freedom is everything. Little did I know, that brisk thought of mine began churning the wheels towards my next chapter in life.

What was that itch that drove me out of my comfort zone?

CURIOSITY.

The lust for knowledge.

The drive to dig deeper.

The need for understanding.

The urge to question conventions.

The desire to search for new solutions.

The engine for innovation.

The curious mind is an active mind. It never rests. It’s driven by dopamine and searching for more to improve our mind, body, and soul. Without curiosity, we would have never accomplished humanity’s greatest achievements.

Do you remember how curious you were as a child? We were all born with an innate desire to find out how things worked. That’s why we read books, watched shows and annoyed our siblings– to get involved with the world so we can discover our true passions.?

Why do so many of us lose that in adulthood? Oh yes, we are bombarded by LIFE aka stress.?

Curiosity is an important ingredient at every age in life.

The movers, shakers and innovators who are all creating world-changing products and services are the ones who never lost their curiosity.

The ones who do the same thing their entire lives or stay in toxic careers and relationships have somehow lost their creativity. Their minds have become passive.

A Self-Imposed Prison

For some, this trait is truly innate and accompanies them for a lifetime.?

For others, curiosity is the most underrated skill that will offer you limitless opportunities if you commit to its development. Curiosity offers you a wider lens to view the world allowing feedback from different lifestyles, opinions and lifestyles. Without it, you are a prisoner of your narrow frame of mind.

Remember, we are all in a prison with no lock, which we are free to leave at any time. However, many choose to stay in their own prison.

Curiosity is a sign of intelligence.

According to Ian Leslie , curiosity isn't a quality you can rely on to last a lifetime, but a mental muscle that atrophies without regular exercise. It's not a gift, but a habit. It is a combination of intelligence, persistence and a hunger for all novelty wrapped up in one.

Expertise is overrated. Curiosity is clearly humanity’s superpower.

Curiosity didn’t kill the cat. The cat only died back then because the world wasn’t ready for it. These days, our culture understands curiosity is a fundamental building block in driving our economies forward.?

How To Cultivate Curiosity

The school of life never ends and the key is to be a student… FOREVER. What’s wonderful is that in this school, you create your own curriculum and the outcome is entirely up to you.

Read.

Reading opens you to new worlds, opinions and subject matters. Read everything; both fiction and non-fiction. I love memories and fantasy novels — it ignites imagination and shows your brain endless possibilities and that anything is possible. If you don’t like to read, at least try it and see where it takes you.

Write.

Writing helps you sort and find solutions to your thoughts. If you don’t like to write, I encourage you to do it anyway because writing can change your life.

Try different things.

You don’t grow to do the same things over and over. Exposing yourself to new experiences may spark an idea you never knew existed.

Self-Reflect.

An essential skill for growth, extreme self-awareness allows you to question your thoughts, feelings and behaviours enabling us to look within with newfound interest and curiosity.

Be inquisitive.?

Question everything that is happening to you internally and externally relentlessly.

Say “I Don’t Know”.

A truly curious person knows she doesn’t always know everything. That’s what drives inquisition.

Analyze failure.

Those who are curious see failure as a lesson on how to do better next time.

Be present.

You’ll be able to focus on what’s happening in front of you and take in everything that’s happening.

Make time to be curious.

Prioritize or schedule everything listed above! The more you expand the vast space in your mind with knowledge, the more you have to draw on effortlessly for creative breakthroughs.

It’s Wonderful To Be Curious.

Having intellectual curiosity means you will never be bored. There is always something to learn, read, see and experience. I promise!

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I write about intelligence, creativity, productivity, growth, neuroscience, business, wellbeing and spirituality. Stay curious. Plant seeds. Never stop growing. ??

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