Childish Curiosity

My fiancé advised against this but I’m going to tell you something I’ve never told anyone else before.

I’m dumb.

Not in the self-effacing way where I actually mean I’m smart.

I really am dumb.

My grade school report cards and high school GPA prove that I lack book smarts. So I must have been blessed with a healthy dose of street smarts, right?

Those closest to me would respond with a resounding “No.”

Perhaps it’s due to the fact that I’ve fallen victim to my fair share of get-rich-quick schemes?

Ever wonder who joins those “live” webinars where a charismatic con man sells his “exact step-by-step formula to make $20,000 a month without lifting a finger”? 🙋‍♂️Guilty. That flashy countdown clock gets me every time!

My fiancé wonders how I’ve managed to survive the past thirty years while lacking both book and street smarts. She’s not alone.

It took me a long time to realize I’ve only got one thing going for me. You’ve got it too (even if you forgot).

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Childish curiosity.

It’s a universal trait that we are endowed with the instant we emerge from our mother’s womb. The bad news is that society has done a damn good job of wringing it out of us like a wet rag. But I want to remind you that it’s still a card in your back pocket waiting to be played.

Society actively sucks our childish curiosity out of us drip by drip. It starts with our parents and teachers. It continues with our colleagues and bosses.

Where does it go?

From the moment we can speak, we utter one of the most important words “why” and then we pester our parents with questions like:

• Why is the sky blue?

• Why do I have to go to school?

• Why do I have to wear this uncomfortable suit to aunties third wedding?

This is cute for a while, but every parent reaches a breaking point where they simply cannot answer another one of our endless questions with anything insightful. So they start responding with one of two blanket answers to all further inquiries: “Because I said so!” or “That’s how it’s always been!”

I can’t blame them but this leads to a tragedy.

The end of curiosity

I had a hunch this starts for most around age ten so I did some research and discovered the following from FutureLearn:

“Three-year-olds, on average, ask their parents about 100 questions a day, every day! However, by the time they are eleven years of age they've pretty much stopped asking…Curiosity seldom survives childhood.”

I would go even further and say the moment we lose our childish curiosity is the day we die.

We may live for another seventy years but we are as good as dead at that instant.

Is losing our childish curiosity inevitable?

No.

There are plenty of examples of individuals who refused to lose it. Socrates, Montaigne and Einstein are a few.

I kept mine for one simple reason. I had no other choice due to my lack of book and street smarts.

My childish curiosity has given me a reason to jump out of bed each morning. There is so much I still do not know that I must find out (or at least try).

“The uncurious life is not worth living.” - what Socrates meant to say

Reclaim it.

You will know you’ve reawakened your childish curiosity when you find a topic that makes you want to spend countless hours exploring, reading and contemplating.

A few of mine are:

• Money and its role in our lives.

• Creativity and how to realize we all have it.

• Spirituality and why it is lacking more than ever.

This wakes me up with an energy that fuels me more than the strongest cup of coffee ever could. I simply must find out. This makes me research, read and write to learn. Then learn some more. The journey has no end in sight. And I love knowing that.

So what sparks your childish curiosity?

Think back to when you were a kid. What did you feel compelled to explore without any promise of a beneficial outcome? That’s a fine place to start.

I can’t guarantee that it will lead to a life of untold riches and fame. But I can guarantee you something better. A reason to jump out of bed every morning.

Now what?

I’m sure you don’t share the same afflictions that I confessed to earlier. So you’ve already got a leg up. But I have a feeling you’ve allowed society to extinguish the universal trait we all share.

It seems to me that there’s only two options available.

1. Die the moment you lose your childish curiosity.

2. Live like a child free to explore everything that interests you.

Remember, the uncurious life is not worth living. Embrace your childish curiosity.

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Thank you to my editors Steven F., Ethan C., and Sandra Y.

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I love reading and responding to your insightful comments. Comments are below.