Cultivating Curiosity

It is 5:40 on a Monday night. A couple of days ago I decided to embark on a self-imposed writing challenge to write more for the views of others (not just in my personal journal) to develop my inner writing voice, to invite the muse, to be ready when she comes to put words on paper.

I am thinking how little curiosity I feel my life has held recently. I love routine, don’t get me wrong, but the spontaneous nights of blowing bubbles in the tunnels under the dormitories, walks out in the big field when it is dumping snow (sticking to EVERYTHING it touches), deciding to take a last-minute trip to London for the weekend…all of these things sparked my sense of adventure, my sense of wonder, and my sense of curiosity.

Life has begun to feel “hubdub.”

And not that I have a bad life. I enjoy my job and my relationships, I’ve found some new challenges teaching college online, I’ve taken on learning Spanish, and with that we are planning a trip around South America. The wanderlust in me is strong, and while I love travel and am working to someday make it a more consistent part of my life, I don’t want my sense of wonder and curiosity to be sparked only when I’m away from home.

And so, enter the curiosity challenge. I am going to embark on a “curiosity task” daily. Some of these days this will be the same, such as sitting down and writing for 10 solid minutes without worrying about the “what” or “how” or “why.” Other things will be one-offs; watching my nephew (who’s 3) play, start up conversations with strangers….my list of ways to integrate curiosity was nearing 40 items, I'll share that when it is a bit more ready.

One item I’ve been struggling with the last year is discipline. Some of that stems from not actually knowing what I want to do (making it hard to do it), some stems from stress and exhaustion. Some stems from saying yes when I should have said no (thank you Essentialism).But regardless of all those things, discipline is more than that.

Image from Aaron McHugh which also includes a great interview with author Greg McKeown.

Discipline is doing things even when you DON’T know WHAT to do. Even when you’re stressed. Even when you’re exhausted. Even when you’re doing it because someone else asked you and you said yes to appease them. So surrounding this curiosity exploration is a sense of discipline to actually BE curious with intention.

For the forthcoming weeks I am dedicating to embracing discipline through the avenue of curiosity. Anything I am curious about, I have full permission to pursue, but I MUST pursue it regularly. Writing, reading new authors, exploring new (or old) areas in my hometown with fresh eyes, learning, observing, conversing, moving. Anything I notice I will document through my daily writing to ultimately share with you.

Thanks for coming along for the ride.

Amy x