15 Feb Curiosity

I have a nearly obsessive fixation with eradicating ignorance from my life. Simply stated, I love to learn. Sometimes I wonder if I enjoy knowing as much as I enjoy learning. It’s sort of like the feeling of watching a TV show for the first time vs. having watched it already. If I could erase the part of my brain that watched ‘The Office’ and watch it again for the first time I would gladly do it. The process of becoming aware fascinates and stimulates me to no end. 

I wonder if those of you out there with children get a similar feeling of elation from watching your kids become aware of new things. 

I’ve recognized that it is this childlike instinct of wonder that fuels creativity in me. The various creative playgrounds that I get to explore allow me to inquire about the effect of things on other things. I feel the most alive when I’m exploring these relationships. In this season of my life, I’m doing the best I can to engage with these inquisitive processes as early in the day as I can because I’ve found them to positively impact its trajectory. 

All of this sounds so glorious and idyllic… and in walks the villain. There’s one major dynamic that has the power to undermine my appetite for exploration. The root of this dynamic is fear. 

Fear is a crafty force. It is a master of disguise. 

In my life, I’ve noticed that on some days fear shows up dressed as procrastination. On these days, the uncertainty of where my exploration will take me gets the better of me. I acquiesce to the emotionally-driven, irrational fear that my creative exploration will be a waste of time. The fact is that I’ve never had a regrettable date with creative inquiry. 

The next day fear shows up dressed as pride. Pride is the big, bad disguise. I want to spend some time talking about this one because I believe it is both the most deceptive and destructive disguise. In fact, I believe that pride is so insidious that it also is a part of what fuels our procrastination. Ego keeps me from inquiring because it feeds me the false narrative that I already know. Pride sits on the throne of my heart and screams, in the words of Kanye West, “Uh-uh, you can’t tell me nothing”. 

To this point in this writing, I’ve done my best to make myself the center of these issues as if I’m the only one that deals with them. But let’s be honest, we can all relate because this is the stuff of humanity. 

This dynamic reminds me of the award-winning miniseries Chernobyl, which chronicles the disastrous Ukrainian nuclear plant explosion in the late 80s. In the most dramatic of circumstances, this series does a remarkable job of depicting how pride caused a stifling of information that eventually led to a completely avoidable tragedy of astronomical proportions. 

Perhaps the stakes for our willful ignorance are much lower. But maybe not. I’m a believer of the adage, “How you do anything is how you do everything.” I’d bet that the men whose pride influenced the outcome of Chernobyl were also prideful in other contexts outside of work. Why? Because, as I alluded to before, pride is a heart issue and heart issues can’t be compartmentalized. All of this is to say that if we aren’t intentional, fear is capable of getting the better of any of us, the collateral impact of which may not be as predictable as we would hope.

To bring us back up to a lighter, more positive note, here’s my main point: Humility fuels curiosity. Curiosity fuels creativity. Creativity fuels life. 

Humility fuels curiosity because humility embraces the reality that there is always more to know. There are always new perspectives from which to see things, even the things that we think we already know. There are levels of depth to the knowledge that we experience. Humility prevents us from being threatened by what we do not know, which is why I believe the uncertainty tied to procrastination is mitigated by a healthy sense of humility. 

Curiosity fuels creativity because creativity is the exploration of possibilities. Creativity consists of inquiry and choice. Our inquiry provides us with data with which to make functional or aesthetic decisions that add up to our final creation. We make connections between outcomes based on our own sensibilities. Curiosity powers this entire process.

Creativity fuels life. I believe that life itself is the byproduct of creativity. Aside from the emotional benefits of starting my day with creativity, I believe there is something interesting to learn about creativity from the way the Bible begins. Genesis 1:1 says that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Creating was the first thing that God did. I’ve found much value in structuring my days this way. I also believe that we were created in the image of God. Perhaps by prioritizing creativity we can experience a fuller, more enjoyable life.

So what’s the takeaway from all of this? I’ll make this part simple and brief:

1. Ruthlessly execute pride in your life by inviting feedback and advice from the people in your life. 

Self-awareness and humility go hand-in-hand because knowing yourself means knowing that you are limited. So be intentional about fighting to kill pride by getting honest feedback about yourself from the perspective of others.

2. Make intentional margin for exploring curiosity in constructive ways.

Maybe you aren’t in a position to create first thing in the morning. That’s okay. The point here is that every human is made in the image of God and therefore needs to prioritize engaging with some creative outlet. This could be as simple as putting together a puzzle with your family. Maybe you buy an adult coloring book and do a little bit every morning before work (I’ve found this very relaxing). Perhaps you need to get up a little earlier in the morning to spend some time with your old watercolors. As long as it isn’t destructive the outlet doesn’t matter. But please, for the love of yourself, pick something. 

If you need a bit more motivation, I’ve found two really cool benefits that tend to happen when I get this right. 

First, when I prioritize creating, I get creative energy which helps give me the energy I need to execute even the more mundane tasks of the day. 

Second, curiosity is an appetite. When you allow curiosity to outlet to inquiry you get more information about which to be curious. Then you’ll need to do more inquiry. And there goes the infinite loop. Don’t let fear short-circuit that loop.

How do you like to engage with curiosity/creativity? What advice do you have for overcoming fear? What common character traits do you notice in the most humble people you know? I’d love to learn from you so hit me up with any ideas you have.