OK, so “curiosity killed the cat.” It did have nine lives though and being curious those lives would have been interesting, fun and full of feline adventures.
How many lives do you think you will have? What if it is only one, wouldn’t you prefer to learn and discover as much as you can, go on adventures and meet interesting people?

Image courtesy of Flickr.com
You know how I bang on about values, and rightly so as values are the significant drivers in life. Curiosity is a value and to be curious is to be inquisitive and anxious to learn. My hand goes up how about yours? Like most values curiosity is a “being state” or “state of being” and refers to the state or quality of being curious. Curious also refers to anything that is unusual or rare (the figurine of a dog juggling donuts collecting dust in the cupboard could be a winner).
Remember that rather talented guy back in the day, Albert Einstein. Here’s what he had to say about being curious. “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”
I’m very curious by nature, inquisitive to the point of danger and love to learn. Imagine if right now at this point in your life you were told that you would live for another 30 years however you would not discover or learn anything new about yourself or the world around you. Yikes, death by boredom.
What if you thought you only had a year to live and you had all the resources you needed to satisfy every curiosity that you currently had? What would you do, where would you go and who would you want to meet?
Being curious I love doing research and going down the rabbit hole. Late last year, Scientific American published an article about a study from the University of California in Davis that suggests “that when our curiosity is piqued, changes in the brain ready us to learn not only about the subject at hand, but incidental information, too.”
With the discoveries in the field of neuroplasticity proving that the brain is continuously rearranging itself and laying down new connections we now know that the brain responds to curiosity and is hardwired for novelty.
Take my 87 year old mother, who only six months ago got an iPad and has pretty much taught herself how to use it. She’s rocking it and forget Google, as she now has the answers to everything from how to naturally get rid of silverfish to film reviews.
I generally prefer people to technology. You can find me in cafes observing and staring at strangers, whilst writing riveting articles for you of course. The minute I hear a foreign accent that’s my cue to start up a conversation and find out all about my newest best friend , their country of origin and other more personal and inappropriate details about their life for the newness of the relationship.
Last week I met a really cool guy from Texas via Chicago. He is an inspirational young entrepreneur who switched from a degree in philosophy to bringing an amazing magnesium supplement to the market to help people with severe leg cramps. Yes, I checked out his website and I was very inspired. Had I not picked up on his accent and started a conversation I would never have discovered his beneficial product and the fact that we had both been to Laredo Texas.
Are you curious to meet people from other places and cultures?

Bondi Beach Farmers Market
What about the food you eat, the clothes you wear and the products you wash with? Are you curious to know what’s in the food you eat, where it comes from, who grew it and how it was grown? I prefer to buy from growers as much as possible.
I’m also curious about all the life-threatening chemicals that we are unwillingly exposed to in everyday life so I make it my responsibility to research them and make an informed decision about what not to buy.
How would your life and well-being be if you were more curious about what you eat and the household products you use?
Living up around Byron Bay on the North Coast of New South Wales for nearly a decade exposed my partner and me to a plethora of wildlife including the gorgeous pythons that inhabited our shed and roof. Most people run away from snakes however my curiosity moved me towards them and a subsequent love affair with a particular 8ft python that I would chat to and pat when hanging out the clothes on the line.
I became so fascinated with the reptiles that we shared our environment with that we took ourselves off for a course in “Caring for Injured Native Reptiles.” No, not something I use on a regular basis living back in the city however it was an enlightening course and a day of catching and bagging snakes was better than any snakes and ladders game I played as a kid.
Speaking of kids, they’re curious by nature and generally love to explore their surrounds, for better or worse and sometimes without the necessary acuity to sense potential danger. We can learn from children and perhaps re-ignite a greater sense of curiosity within ourselves by being more childlike.
How much more fun, discovery, learning and adventure could you have if curiosity was a value for you?
Here’s 7+1 ways to “get your curiosity on”, discover, learn, enhance your brain agility and play more.
- Talk to at least 5 strangers every week
- Take a different route to work, the weekly shopping or a friend’s house
- Ask meaningful questions
- Research and write a 500 word article about dirt (I was once asked to speak about dirt for 10 minutes at an event…curious and fascinating subject)
- Be more interested than interesting.
- Learn a new language
- Be creative: write, draw, dance, sing, paint or cook
- See problems as challenges and come up with innovative ways to overcome them
Where will curiosity take you in life?
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