Stay Curious

Do you ever wonder why children are so happy and have little trouble staying in the moment? They are new to the world, everything is an adventure and they aren’t afraid to fail. As we get older, we tend to compartmentalize everything we see and everyone we meet, therefore categorizing them to a pre-existing understanding how something is. Whether it’s accurate or not - convenience can kill our development of understanding. This is what keeps racism perpetuated in the face or opposing evidence. This is what keeps an unethical practice going long after negative feedback is asking for a change of direction. This is what keeps us in a box of being uninformed.

When we question something, or we decided to pay attention to something we initially thought we understood, we then get ourselves out of autopilot mode and we begin to think. Life is meant to be engaged with, understood, and listened to. How many people excuse their bad behavior because they pretend the problem it’s inherent when it’s really an avoidance of an underlying issue? How many times do we easily jump to conclusions without having heard all the evidence?

Life demands our attention, and growth is found in remaining curious. When we ask ourselves, “What if….?” then we find ourselves at the gates of a million possibilities. Great ideas and developments come from being curious about what already is. Why settle for “good enough” when your imagination can take something useful that already exists and bring it to a whole new level? Creativity is necessary for everyone’s personal and professional development.

What we understand about the world isn’t going to be 100% accurate. It’s completely impossible for any human to know everything with complete certainty. However, we have a much better chance of obtaining a well-rounded view of things if we decided to pay attention and learn. Our everyday experiences are often filtered through a system of pre-existing notions often due to conditioning. While some conditioning may have been initially well intentioned, it can do unexpected damage and cause prejudice to run rampant.

It can be very tempting to shut ourselves off from the world when we see the daily news, read of disasters, and watch the current political debates. We’re not going to get useful or accurate information from the news. Instead of cutting ourselves of from the world, we can do our best to take care of ourselves and make an impact within our community. Not everything is lost. Stay curious and trust God to provide answers.

For further related reading, please check out: Calm Over Happy.