I just spent some time with our niece’s ten-year-old twins, Cam and Theo. What fun. I was struck, in awe, by their curiosity. They both love to learn and share, and this led to talking about Greek myths, art, styles of painting, websites and lots of intriguing questons.
I commented on their curiosity, which led to their views on the idiom ‘curiosity killed the cat’ and whether cats have nine lives. Cam said definitely not, and Theo said they have one life. And that took us to talking about cats. And dogs.
This took me to reading a bit about curiosity. Nabil Zary, notes in his article The neuroscience of curiosity and how it fuels our learning that although curiosity may be innate, some people may get more of a dopamine hit when learning something new, which of course strengthens interest in learning. I found this intriguing because my experience is there seems to be quite a spectrum when it comes to curiosity.
He suggests if you want to cultivate curiosity, you try these three things.
- Expose yourself to new experiences and challenges.
- Ask questions.
- Be open to new ideas and perspectives.
How do you rate yourself on these?
So, coming back to ‘curiosity killed the cat’…one interpretation of this expression is don’t ask too many questions. Ahh, and this requires some discernment.
- Artwork by Este Macleod.
- Here’s the link to Zary’s article on LinkedIn.
- Curiosity is a key component for Emotional Agility.
- And curiosity is essential for leadership, especially being an adaptive leader. See Women Leaders Leading the Way
I delight in sharing my thoughts, such as these, in a newsletter, typically every few months. And now and then, ideas show up our Facebook page. Always love to hear from you via email.
