An essential ingredient for success at anything is curiosity. Curiosity is about exploration and discovery. It creates energy, possibilities and movement. It also allows us to create relationships and to grow more deeply and delightfully connected with one another.
The antithesis of curiosity is a sense for certainty. Curiosity is a quality that allows us to expand our awareness. In contrast, when we look for certainty we’re looking to end the search and bring the exploration to a close. But when we’re habitually looking for certainty, eager to end the search, we’re severely limiting the possibilities for living a rich and fulfilling life. The need for certainty can reinforce the need for more certainty. We become more defensive in the pursuit of being right. We look for and hold on to stereotypes, avoiding too much empathy or self-reflection in favour of what we think we know. Certainty closes off a whole world of information that doesn’t already fit our model of the world. That makes us rigid, saps our energy and leads us to make bad decisions.
Growing our sense of curiosity is something we can do fairly easily. Of all the major personality traits, curiosity and openness are the most workable. Curiosity is something we can grow on purpose at any time of life.
Sven Franssen