Ever notice an infant gazing around her environment, fed, dry and rested, and just contently taking it all in? Or feel like the expression on your dog’s face is one of a question mark? Can you remember a time that a young child peppered you with questions? ”Why?” After curious ”Why?” After curious “Why?” It seemed no matter what brilliant answer an adult provided, the child had another ready question?
Big Bird taught us that “Asking questions is a good way of finding things out.” Yet, my experience is that there is greater apparent reward for seeming to “Know it all” than to be curious, or worse, uninformed. As our lives increase in age, our curiosity tends to diminish.
Whether we were made to feel inferior, because of a “silly” question we may have asked in the classroom, or the boardroom, or we have become jaded over learning the painful answers in some situations, if we are not careful, we lose this incredible skill of being curious, the one we were born with.
Since certainty is rewarded, and blurred lines deemed uncomfortable and worthy of being avoided at all costs, we forget that most of the “answers” we seek are already right here. We invest in education, workshops, training, on line courses and read endlessly, so we can “learn” what we think we need to know.
We trade our resources (time, money, attention) for a tangible representation of an accomplishment (diploma, certification, expertise) but in doing so can miss the wisdom that surrounds us. The true lessons that have been passed through the ages, that were relevant then, and are relevant now. But are just not advertised as a means to an end.
I have been extremely fortunate, particularly as a woman, to live in a country where I am “allowed” to seek information. I have had the resources for education and workshops and all the formal means of storing and processing information in my brain. But I also recognize that even the most “educated” among us, would be missing critical wisdom if the only things we learn are taught by some formal means.
Take health as an example: If a tree had brown leaves, would we paint them green and walk away? Probably not. Yet we treat high cholesterol with a pill, and imagine our bodies are functioning well. Do we need a medical degree (or a nursing degree, in my case) to know that this is masking a problem, not resolving it? I would answer a resounding “Nope.” Yet we rely on doctors to fix our health problems, most of which we create by our lifestyle choices, despite the formal education we may have garnered about how to care for our physical bodies.
The next time you are grappling with a decision or a piece of data, don’t assume that someone else knows better than you do, about the next best step to take. Try not to judge anything as “positive” or “negative” or give it a name or a label. Sit still, and give it your precious resources of time, energy and attention. You may be surprised how much of a friend curiosity can be, especially during some of life’s most important lessons.