Is curiosity a cousin of creativity?

 

Curiosity is made up of an open mind, acute sensing abilities and an urge to seek and find. As a child, you had natural curiosity and a sense of wonder. Hungry for novelty, you were always on your toes to welcome the next moment.

A curious mind enabled you to see what most people generally miss. No wonder you frequently came up with new ideas. You were naturally creative.

As you grew up, acquired knowledge and gained experience, you developed a sense of certainty just about everything. In the process, you lost your curiosity and consequently your creativity.

You can regain your curiosity and your creativity by just opening your eyes to the newness of every moment. It is said that the beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. But if you keep your eyes closed, there is no beauty.

By keeping your curiosity and a sense of wonder alive, you spur your mind to create new channels of thought. You find new connections and become more creative.

How curious are you?

Here is a test designed to determine how curious you are about the stuff that you see around you every day. There is nothing sacrosanct about this test. Nor is it very precise. It is meant only to give you a general idea about your degree of curiosity.

Go through it and decide for yourself where you are on the curiosity index assuming that you were at 100 when you were five years old.

1. Ever wondered why the white stripes painted on roads to delineate lanes are always clean and spotlessly white even when the road is dirty?

2. Ever wondered why bicycles/motorcycles are waiting to topple over when made to stand still but remain upright when moving? Someone told me once that the rider does the balancing act with minor adjustments all the time. However, I recently bought a scale model of a BMW motorbike for my son. This bike also does not topple over when it is moving. And there is no rider to do the balancing act!

3. Remember the last time you looked out an aircraft window, or rather, looked at the window? It appears to have three layered panes. In the middle pane, near the bottom, there is a small hole. Why do they have this hole?

4. We heated curry puffs in the microwave and they were nice and warm to the touch. However, when I bit into one, the center was scalding hot. So I warned my son to be careful with his. He asked me why the stuff heats up from the inside out in the microwave while on the gas stove or regular oven it heats up from the outside in. Any clue?

5. Water entering your car engine would cause devastating damage. So how do airplanes manage to fly in heavy rain with water entering the engine directly?

6. Do birds sleep? If yes, do they ever fall off their perch when they are sleeping? If they don’t, why not?

7. I was at a park with my son last week and we noticed an aircraft in the sky.

8. It was a distant speck but it was trailing two long lines of white ‘smoke’. What causes those white lines behind the aircraft and why are there always two even behind a four-engine aircraft?

9. When you pull scotch tape off the reel quickly, it appears transparent. If you pull it off slowly, it appears opaque. Why?

10. Why do Caucasians have the highest diversity in bodily parameters – color of hair, color of eyes, etc.?

Have you spent more than 1 minute ever in the last 5 years thinking about any of these or similar questions? If yes, it shows that you are curious about what is happening around you. Most of us however, have ‘more pressing’ things to take care of!

There is more to curiosity.

Now curiosity has other side benefits as well! The following come free when you embrace curiosity!

Truth

Appearances may be deceptive. The curious don’t go by appearances alone. They don’t just take someone’s word for something. They dig deep into the details and discover the truth for themselves. When they finish their detective work, they not only come to know “what” or “when”, they also know “how” and “why”.

Career as a full-time child

Children are naturally curious. Their minds are like an empty canvas, waiting to be filled with knowledge and experiences. They don’t have predetermined expectations fogging their judgment. Children absorb the world around them with an open mind driven by sheer curiosity. Curiosity can help open your mind too, allowing you to live as a full-time child.

Discovery

New experiences are among the most exciting events of life. They stimulate your mind and free up your creative urges. They liberate your thoughts from the tensions of everyday life. Be curious, be daring, be alive! Go discover something fresh.

Getting better at stuff

A curious mind dives beneath the surface of common acceptance to unravel the details driving a process. The better you understand the process, the more productive you will be.

New peaks to climb

When your curiosity steers you into the unknown you will return with greater wealth of knowledge. You will stretch the boundaries of your mind. The more you know, the more you will want to know. Your every new awareness will lead you to another stimulating challenge.

Getting more done

Curious people look at a challenge from multiple angles. They discover alternative ways of accomplishing the same task. The greater the pool of possible solutions, the more likely it is that they will find a better way to get things done.

Variety

Variety is the spice of life, at least for the curious folks. There is nothing more boring than repetition. When you allow your curiosity to send you in new directions, you add variety into your life. This could be as simple as eating at a new restaurant or taking a new route to work. Don’t confine yourself. Go explore.

Clarity and positivity

It is much easier to be negative about something than it is to be positive. If you don’t understand something or you find it unusual, it’s easy to write it off as being useless or dumb. Only when you truly understand something will you be able to appreciate it. Human beings tend to be more positive towards the things they understand. Curiosity naturally broadens a person’s horizons and thus their understanding of the things around them.