2012 Resolution #12 - Have an Unreasonable Curiosity
Posted on January 12, 2012 by Maria McInnis, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
#12 in a series on Resolutions, today's about being able to ask questions
Resolve to have an unreasonable curiosity.
As we have discussed, curiosity is what keeps the world and society progressing. Having an unreasonable curiosity means to not only ask questions, but to pursue knowledge with vigor. It means to pursue each answer given to us with a new question that helps to create understanding in our lives, and in the world around us.
Children are notorious for doing this, and somewhere along the way we lose our ability to feel that we can ask questions like ‘Why?’, ‘How?’ and ‘What?’, but it is exactly those questions that we must be willing to ask others and ourselves.
“Children are remarkable for their intelligence and ardor, for their curiosity, their intolerance of shams, the clarity and ruthlessness of their vision.” – Aldous Huxley
My husband spent almost ten years as a professional street magician, and his greatest bane was children: not because of their attitude towards magic, which was always wonder, but for the fact that they alone never shied away from seeking answers and asking questions. They were also always the first to break down a trick correctly.
They found no awe in card magic, nor sleight of hand or even levitation. They were too quick to spot things that the adults had missed, or would ask questions that no one else dared to ask. That made them a difficult audience, and an even greater challenge. The realm of adult and children’s magic is vastly different for many reasons, but ironically, children’s magic can be both easier, and much more difficult.
When entering into the world, we must be like children in how we look at things, and in how we ask questions: we must use our experiences to understand what we are observing, but at the same time, we must be willing to accept other explanations and gather knowledge. Children are flexible in their understanding, while most adults are set in their ways.
“Curiosity killed the cat.” – English Proverb
We are often discouraged from asking questions; to simply accept facts, even if they are wrong, and to not stir the proverbial pot. We are warned that too much digging can do us harm, and that by being unrelenting we are causing troubles that do not need to be.
The issue with this type of thinking? It leads to ignorance in society and within ourselves. It kills progression and expression and keeps us in a place where change and creativity is stifled. It is a passively dangerous path to follow, and leads no where.
Those who are able to take big risks gain the biggest rewards at the end of their journey, and those who ask the biggest, most daring questions will get the best and most accurate answers. Richard Bandler expresses his desire to see people have an unreasonable curiosity in his “Class of a Master” series on NLP. He claims that only through an unreasonable curiosity can we gain the answers we need.
Be curious about what you can achieve in your life; be curious about how far you can go; be curious about your strengths and endeavors, and about the things that this world can offer to you. Never limit yourself, and if you find someone asking you ‘Why?’ ask them ‘Why not?’ Why not go ahead and live life as you want to? Why not achieve your own personal greatness? What can possibly hold you back? How can you get around that obstacle, and how can you move forward?
Having an unreasonable curiosity means letting nothing hold you back and taking nothing at face value. It means not accepting something as truth simply because someone says its true. It means finding out the truth of things for yourself through experiencing it first hand.
As Elphaba, the main character in Broadway’s Wicked says in the song “Defying Gravity":
_ “I’m through accepting limits
’cause someone says they’re so
Some things I cannot change
But till I try, I’ll never know!”_
This is the attitude that you need in order to succeed in your own life. No limits to hold you back, no barriers that are unbreakable and no one but yourself to hold you back. Break the chains of fear, and realize that you can be free to explore your own life and blaze your own path. All you have to do is ask the right questions.
