Practice the awesome threesome of gratitude, curiosity and play

Updated 24 September 2020

You and I are committed to creating a far better world, and "richer' futures for all, post-pandemic, aren't we? Of course, we are!

But how do we do that? Here's a way to start: Practice the awesome threesome of gratitude, curiosity and play. And, yes, I admit, until you actual act on these three, the formula sounds weird.

One way to find out: Try it!

Cultivate our inbuilt curiosity

Our natural curiosity is a fabulous garden containing millions of fruitful seeds - and quite a lot of weeds.

But, as we deliberately and purposively cultivate our inherent talent for #curiosity… And we add the daily practice of #gratitude…Plus a few doses of child-like #play… We lay a great base for:

• changing our mindsets
• our ongoing learning, and
• evolving and transforming us, our team, our clients, or community, our business, our world, and certainly our futures.

How come? Because this awesome threesome unleashes the powers of our limitless creativity. And leads us, first, to transform and tsunami-proof our current businesses that have been dealt body blows by global warming and the pandemic. And then to create cohorts where we #collaborate to create far better futures for all.

For more: See: A Call to Arms

Curiosity never killed the cat

It’s a blatant lie. Curiosity never kills any cat.  It’s what gives her 9 lives. 

“Curiosity is a potent life force,” claims our resident futurist, Dr Peter Pronto. "It’s an energiser. A transformer. The avgas fuel of our discovery, inquiry, and learning.  It’s the inherent lust of our mind to deep dive into knowing. It’s the insatiable hunger we have, to know or learn, and apply, something; anything, a whole lot more than we do now."

#Curiosity opens wide our eyes, ears and minds to the wonders, magic, differences and awesomeness of the world we live in, and the people that live here with us.  

Our probing Curiosity, and #PotentQuestioning, is what opens up far more opportunities to us that we can ever hope to develop, over our entire life times. So we need to select, select, select. And join with others.

Our Curiosity kick-starts growth, change and transformation in us, our business, our world.

Enter gratitude and play

Then, next, our daily habit of manifesting #gratitude moves our new insights into action. 

And #play consolidates our new directions, and makes them fun to activate and achieve.

As a result…

Curiosity, gratitude and play, when combined, make up an awesome threesome: Every time we apply curiosity, gratitude and play together, we change the way we see, experience, know, and intuit our world.  And, sometimes, the world.

And because of the inherent neuroplasticity of our brains, this awesome threesome, fires and connects different synapses, lays down new pathways in our brain, and reprograms our minds. 

With practice, the neural pathways strengthen - changing our lives and businesses. And heading both our lives and businesses in significantly different and better directions.

Okay, so what’s next?

With that out of the way, next, we now show us all how to activate our Curiosity Gizmo full blast. Turn it a Ghetto-blaster, if you like.

A gizmo is a gadget, especially one whose name we don’t know or cannot easily recall. 

How you turn on your Curiosity Gizmo

If you are right handed, take the thumb and third finger of your right hand. Or your left hand if you are left-handed. Move them to your right or left temple.

Imagine a butterfly nut embedded there. Give it one turn in a clockwise direction. Then a second. Then a third, 

You have activated your Curiosity Gizmo!

In reality, what you really done is used the power of your conscious, focused, awareness, or mindfulness, to create a link between your conscious and unconscious minds. 

Whenever you do this, you access a limitless Ali Baba-cave, that’s a treasure trove of gold, ideas, possibilities, dreams… that constantly simmer within you, waiting to burst out. 

Okay, so how do you use and apply your Curiosity Gizmo?

First, by learning from journalists. At journalist school they are taught how they can create any article about any topic, even when they know nothing about it. How?  They constantly ask, and recycle, six basic questions.

Rudyard Kipling, the journalist turned author, captured these six questions in a clever bit doggerel: 

“I keep six honest serving men (they taught me all i knew);

Their names are What and Why; and When And How

And Where and Who.”

Rule One: Whenever we dialogue with anyone, read anything, research any theme, think about anything, want to innovate, create a start-up business, conquer a new skill, write a blog or article, prepare a speech, plan our future… We action our curiosity…And we give it structure and direction… By using these six questions over and over.

 Examples

• So Mr Jones, who are you, apart from being an innovator?
• What have you innovated lately?
• Why do you believe innovation is important?
• Why did you feel this innovation is worth making?
• What good will it do? How?
• Who do you think will use it? Why?
• How did you get the breakthrough?
• When? Where?
• What problems did you have to overcome?
• What will you do next? 

Rule Two: The questions we ask, using What, Why, When, How, Where and Who should generally NOT be social questions after we've got through the social niceties. That is, NOIT questions like: How are you today? What football team do you follow? How’s your partner and kids?

New insights

RATHER, after we've got those questions out of the way, our questions are best to err towards potent, probing, opportunity- creating questions that yield new insights. Like, for example, these corny examples:

• What new ideas have you had lately?
• What keeps you awake at night? Why?
• Who have you met lately that was brimming with new thoughts?
• When did you last learn a new skill or mastery? What was it? Why did you learn it?
• What’s your view of what’s happening in the world now?
• How do you see humankind’s future evolving?
• What’s your personal experience of global warming?
• What changes have you made with the pandemic
• If you were me, what things would you change in my business? Why?  How would you do it? 
• Right now you were talking about.... What does that concept really mean?  How would you use it?

You, of course, can do far better than this lot!!!!

What about gratitude?

Okay, here’s an action challenge. We invite you to use the 6 journalist questions to research, write and post a blog on “How gratitude transforms us and our business”.

Start, first, by listing all the questions that invade your mind around that theme, before you Google anything.

Then, check out this article: The Transformative Power of Gratitude.

And keep researching. Then write!  Publish! Here on LinkedIn. On your web site. Or via Medium. And please send us a copy!

So, what about play?

Another challenge. Why not form a trio or quartet made up of say, you, your partner and your children.

Watch this video together...

Then start creating and acting out ways you together can transform your family life. Or your Business?  Or our politicians?  Or climate warming? Whatever theme you chose….

And think through, and research, the impact of bringing your minds and bodies back to a child-like, more innocent, developmental state.  The above video gives a few clues.

To think about:

“Curiosity is critical to any business because it’s the strong desire to learn without constraint. It’s the driving force behind new discoveries in all fields, not just technology and science.” - LaRae Quy

Next:  Choose from seven big possible Purposes to reformulate your life and business purpose.

Want to know more? Want to dialogue? Want to be part of the new role and mission of futurists and business founders changing our post pandemic world for the better, and creating new, and better futures for us all?  Contact Neville Christie on +61 420 978 932 or [email protected]

#curiosity #gratitude #businessplay #creatingbetterfutures #potentquestioning