Making Curiosity Matter (GWTW912)

In order to make curiosity matter, we need some rules of engagement so that we don't treat it like a designer drug injected in our fat and face, helping us become what we couldn't be without it.

So here are six rules of engagement for curiosity.

The first is this.

Curiosity isn't the solution to the problem.

It's how you find it.

There have been many times in my life when I've tried to lose weight.

I've always been a fat kid and a fat adult.

And from apps and programs, I got curious along the way about what diets I could follow to lose weight.

And guess what? They always worked.

And over the years, I've probably lost hundreds of pounds only to yo-yo back to fatness every single time.

But guess what I never thought to consider? How to use curiosity to imagine a life not controlled by emotional eating.

to ask why I have to eat an entire box of candy in one sitting, to wonder why food helps me to numb the pain of whatever I'm feeling at the moment.

Curiosity helped me to imagine what life looked like as a skinny person, but I could never use it to figure out how to stay skinny, or to simply be okay with myself no matter my weight.

I tell this story because it's a perfect example of this rule of engagement.

Growing up, I would imagine myself living in a fat suit and one day finding the zipper, unzipping it, and stepping out as a new person.

That is curiosity as the solution.

It's something you can buy or obtain without too much work, money, or discipline.

But sometimes the solution to the problem doesn't really matter, but everything else that helps you find it are the things that actually matter.

Another way of saying this is that the process is often more valuable than the goal.

Right now I'm thinking about the notion of moving to a new city.

Curiosity led me to the idea of moving.

But now in the daily work of packing, purging, selling, and moving, curiosity is the smaller daily work of attending to my feelings, of sabotage and fear, of excitement and apprehension.

It's learning how to see new possibilities in daily existence and figuring out how to make them come alive today instead of at some future point.

So get curious about the process, not the outcome.

In order to make curiosity matter, we need some rules of engagement so that we don't treat it like a designer drug injected in our fat and face, helping us become what we couldn't be without it.

So here are six rules of engagement for curiosity.

The first is this.

Curiosity isn't the solution to the problem.

It's how you find it.

There have been many times in my life when I've tried to lose weight.

I've always been a fat kid and a fat adult.

And from apps and programs, I got curious along the way about what diets I could follow to lose weight.

And guess what? They always worked.

And over the years, I've probably lost hundreds of pounds only to yo-yo back to fatness every single time.

But guess what I never thought to consider? How to use curiosity to imagine a life not controlled by emotional eating.

to ask why I have to eat an entire box of candy in one sitting, to wonder why food helps me to numb the pain of whatever I'm feeling at the moment.

Curiosity helped me to imagine what life looked like as a skinny person, but I could never use it to figure out how to stay skinny, or to simply be okay with myself no matter my weight.

I tell this story because it's a perfect example of this rule of engagement.

Growing up, I would imagine myself living in a fat suit and one day finding the zipper, unzipping it, and stepping out as a new person.

That is curiosity as the solution.

It's something you can buy or obtain without too much work, money, or discipline.

But sometimes the solution to the problem doesn't really matter, but everything else that helps you find it are the things that actually matter.

Another way of saying this is that the process is often more valuable than the goal.

Right now I'm thinking about the notion of moving to a new city.

Curiosity led me to the idea of moving.

But now in the daily work of packing, purging, selling, and moving, curiosity is the smaller daily work of attending to my feelings, of sabotage and fear, of excitement and apprehension.

It's learning how to see new possibilities in daily existence and figuring out how to make them come alive today instead of at some future point.

So get curious about the process, not the outcome.