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.

Filed Under: Growth

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Comments (3)

  1. Rahul Sinha says:

    I am with Mr S Wasu, It ihas been curiosity which has led to most discoveries and invention. I have spent time with the roadside cobbler to know how he fixes those chappals and shoes, the chef at the hotel or Dhaba, the the ease with which he churns out the delicious spread, the fish monger – and how the different types of fish are cut and cleaned, the carpet weavers – how they weave the carpet… Well I get the kick in my life watching all this in awe!

    Today is my first day of joining..

    Thank you for including me in

    Regards

    Rahul Sinha

  2. David J Hall says:

    I believe that Curiosity is a parent of Creativity, without it we are less interested and less interesting. I am a poet and wrote this for a dear friend for his 50th birthday. Enjoy

    THE CURIOUS MAN
    When the curious man goes walking
    He never walks alone
    When the curious man sits silently he
    Is never without a sound
    When the curious man goes looking
    You will be staggered by what he will find
    When the curious man walks a curious path equipped with a curious mind
    When the curious man is a traveler he leaves the trodden path
    Always going forward and rarely coming back
    When the curious man asks questions he really needs to know
    When the curious man leaves it’s because he really has to go
    When the curious man may meet you
    You will never pass him by
    The curious man will capture you in the gaze of a curious eye
    When the curious man has an answer
    it prompts him to enquire
    if there is another question that will take him even higher
    When the curious man seeks to consider why we search at all
    The curiosity of the curious man catches a curious ball
    And when the curiosity is cured of all it seeks to know
    the curious man stops walking for he has nowhere else to go
    So if you wish to travel a road that twists and winds
    Walk along with a curious man and taken an open mind.

    The Downright Hooligan December 2006 For Keith a curious fellow

  3. Ade Shokoya says:

    Great post

    Nice to know that there’s at least one other person out there who’s curious about stuff that most people barely even notice – let alone question.

    Reading this post took me back to my school/university days. I was always the kid asking:

    “why that way…why not this way?” or “what would happen if you did this instead”…etc

    Needless to say, I was labelled by some teachers as being disruptive – that said, I graduated with a 1st class, simply because I was curious about the “why”.

    My curiousity was also behind me creating a free online resource that studies the lives of successful entrepreneurs — like Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump, etc — and reveals the secrets behind their successes. Check them out at http://www.itsanentrepreneursworld.com/

    Could my curiosity be the reason why I’m spiritual as opposed to religous?

    Hmm…something more to ponder…


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