Fostering Curiosity
It might lead you to learn about yourself
Throughout my life, I have struggled with a core concept of who I am as a person. I have stayed close to the edges, never quite getting to the center of it. Since I have been an adult, I have identified by the role I was in—Server, Retail worker, QA Engineer, Designer, Product Manager, Consultant. But while being all of those things professionally, I was something else the whole time—an artist.
Focusing on this concept, this person living in the shadows, allows me to come to a myriad of realizations. The core one is that I stopped fostering this person. I focused on the current role and career rather than the real me. One of the pillars of being an artist, regardless of your medium, is fostering curiosity.
As children, we naturally foster curiosity. We never worry about money, a career, putting food on the table, or paying bills. We just learn, make, and do whatever feels right. As teens and adults, this natural part of us tends to fade. We lose part of us as a defense mechanism. I am not saying everyone is an artist, but we can all be curious. How do we foster curiosity as an adult? Can we tap into a deeper part of ourselves? Maybe in doing so, we will realize that we are more than our titles on LinkedIn.
One of the most valuable traits one can foster is curiosity.
Asking Why
Curiosity is really just asking why. It is questioning everything. We all know that child, be it your own or a family member's, that endlessly asks "why." Sure, when they do it, they generally annoy the crap out of you. No one needs to ask why we are going to the bathroom or getting gas. There is a better way to ask why.
If it is asking why internally, to yourself, or to a person you are conversing with, ask it with true interest and intentionality. Like performing a research session, get to the actual why. Follow up questions with deeper questions. Grab onto strands of concepts and dig in further.
For me, asking why has led me into the direction of why I am doing what I do. Does my career define me? Do I crave more out of life? I followed these down the rabbit hole, asking a lot of whys. I realized that I do not want to be defined by my career, but I do want to be defined by my interests and skills. I also do want more out of life.
So where does this leave me? Focusing on my art. For me, I have dabbled with tons of mediums over the years. I've been a writer, an illustrator, a photographer, a filmmaker. But through all of them, I always go back to writing. Interesting medium to focus on, considering I am dyslexic.
Making Time
After asking a lot of whys, how can one further foster curiosity? Making time for it. Rather than prioritizing your obligations, prioritize time for—learning, practicing, and engaging. Not everyone will foster their curiosity through art; some will do it through learning a topic, practicing a sport, or engaging with a community. Regardless of your medium, like a child, you need to prioritize it over everything else.
Personally, I am spending the first half of my day, almost every day of the week, writing. I get to my computer, check on some notifications, then get to writing. I do not engage with anything that is not time-sensitive. I try to triage and move along. Occasionally, I have to dive into something, but I try to jump right back out once it is complete. Context switching destroys productivity, so try not to.
Why am I writing so much every day? I could not possibly need all that time to write this newsletter, right? Correct. Earlier I mentioned that I have come to the realization that I am an artist, a writer. So I am going all in on that. While I am still consulting, I am also writing my first novel. I have had a backlog of novels for a while but never bothered putting words on paper, as I did not feel like I had the right to.
Thanks to my endless curiosity, I asked the questions that I needed to. I realized what I want out of life and what I needed to do to get there. I need to tell the stories that are in my head, unabashedly. To do this, I am focusing my curiosity on writing.
Over the last 3-5 years, I focused it on productivity and anything productivity-adjacent. I thought that I only had the right to be curious about things that were parallel to my career. But after a lot of whys, I realized that I was just sabotaging myself.
Curiosity has been one of my best traits my whole life, but it was being focused on the wrong topics. Now that I am focused on what fuels me, I am 17,000 words into this book. I am writing about a chapter a day. Meaning, I should be done with a draft of this book in one to one and a half months. Not bad.
Do you foster curiosity? Are you focusing it on the things that matter to you? If so, congrats, that's amazing. If not, bring back some of that inner child. Ask why, a lot. If you don't have the time to dedicate half your day to it, carve out some time, before or after work. Remember, one of the most valuable traits one can foster is curiosity. Find it, hone it, practice it. It might lead you to learn about yourself.