Curiosity is Both a Blessing and a Curse

Curiosity can unlock a drive and an enthusiasm in you that makes you feel truly alive.

High performers, in any field, are generally curious creatures. Why? Because in business, curiosity is a precursor to discovery and innovation. It’s a precursor to a new level of understanding in a relationship. It’s one of the building blocks of growth.

Are you born with it?

What do you do if you’re not the curious type?

Can you change?

My experience is, yes, absolutely. Like a lot of skills in life, curiosity is more like a muscle than it is innate. If you’re connected to a big enough why, you’ll naturally re-deploy energy, time and resources into developing your curiosity.

For most of my life, I’ve been deeply curious about a narrow set of things: Economics, finance, human behaviour, business — those kinds of things.

Give me 10 days off to go anywhere and do anything? You’ll probably find me on a beach or in a cafe reading books on finance and behavioural economics. Nerd alert…

For whatever reason, I’ve always been fascinated by money and understanding how to make it. Wealth creation just got my juices flowing.

Ultimately, what I really wanted was to win in life. How could I surreptitiously leap-frog the competition to enhance my position on the proverbial ladder of life? That was a question I was very curious about finding an answer to.

Now I realise that way of thinking is fundamentally flawed for finding contentment, but stick with me here…

The point is, a curious mind is a searching mind. It’s one that isn’t content with accepting the status quo and longs for a deeper understanding of something. It’s thirsty for knowledge. Leave it parched for too long, and it’ll step over anything to quench that thirst.

Therefore, by its very nature it’s discontent. It thrives on uncertainty and variety. Give it a stable environment of consistent routines and predictable outcomes, and it’ll get bored. Like a stream of water, it seeks out the voids, gaps and crevices to forge its path.

Without curiosity, you would never look for the answers to life’s great questions. With it, you’re constantly trying to escape your current reality in search of a new one. That search means you’re always on the move, always hunting for an answer to a question, always looking for a void to fill.

Therefore, it’s both a blessing and a curse. When you seek out voids in life — something that’s missing — you can’t help but feel discontent that it’s there. Without it, you wouldn’t be the accomplished, respected and high performing individual you are.

Curiousness and the journey it takes you on means you’re constantly forced to confront a dichotomy. To hold on or to let go. To pursue the scent off in the distance or to stop and smell the roses right in front of you.

The question is, which choice will you make?