🧠Weekly Mind Sweep #112 | What’s On My Mind | Curiosity
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Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back. [1]
Wait, so the risk of curiosity might be worth it?
Curiosity is essential for personal and professional growth and development. It promotes innovation and creativity by encouraging people to experiment with new approaches and ideas. Curiosity leads to thinking outside the box and challenging conventional wisdom, resulting in breakthroughs and advancements across product- and service-based businesses.
It is a natural urge for humans to be curious. But entrepreneurs are unique.
Entrepreneurs are curious in 6.1 billion ways, but the one thing we might have in common is the way our brains focus on an idea once we receive the ping of dopamine. #Squirrel
We're inquisitive discoverers. Our curiosity has taken us down a path of wanting to know, needing to understand, and searching for answers to scratch the itch of questionS in front of us. I say questionS with a capital S because one question leads to another, and the next thing we know, we wake up confused about the date and time and who the current president is.
No? Just me? Weird.
Neurodivergent minds have a strong sense of curiosity, and often, it coexists with a tendency to be derailed by irrelevant information and difficulties with organizing and completing inquiries, but also with episodes of highly focused exploratory activities. Today we call this hyperfocus, and every brain is capable of this.
We go from broad daylight to squirrel!
(a beam of focus on a shiny new idea that puts everything else in the shadows).
Before you can even recognize what is happening, your time, energy, and attention are laser-focused on the dopamine-inducing journey of the knowledge gap. This is the space where curiosity can kill the cat.
Welcome to the rabbit hole. We. Must. Uncover. The. Answers.
However, we're also business owners which requires us to manage items on our to-do list that could be more exciting, okay they are boring. When our brains are bored, we can waste our attentional resources by information foraging into curiosities that don't have significance to the things we need to take care of. In this mental space, it can be challenging for your brain to change focus back to what's important.
There is a cost of inquiry. It consumes our cognitive and practical resources.
The full proverb may show us how to peek our heads out of the rabbit hole -- satisfaction.
When we find an answer, find the conclusion, and finally feel fulfilled our brains feel satisfied. Of course, we'll only partially understand the whole reality of all of it. But, alas, we must stop on our journey of exploration and return our focus to things that require our attention, like eating, sleeping, getting sunlight, and watering ourselves.
Satisfaction brings us back.
Wait a minute. Is it tax season again? Yes, yes, it is. And your bookkeeper is waiting for information from you.
Here are a few techniques you can consider if you spend more time being curious and focusing less on tasks needed to maintain things in your life, business, or relationships:
Maintain a time journal. For three days, keep track of time spent on activities (including your smartphone) to see where you spend your time. Identify where you might be losing focus on things that you value.
Limit distractions. (AKA, your smartphones) The rings, dings, and pings go off, and the next thing you know, you're watching reels, and it's time for dinner. If you want to focus, put it in another room.
Set alarms to keep track of time, or try the Pomodoro Method. [2] Break work into intervals, typically 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks.
Find support. Public accountability with a group or coach can be an invaluable resource to keep you focused on what you value and the steps you need to take to achieve them. (AKA, me!)
Curiosity may lead us to challenging situations, like getting lost down that rabbit hole's dark, winding path. Still, those journeys often lead us to new answers, unique solutions, and deeper gratitude for the world around us.
Embrace your curiosity as a powerful tool for growth and innovation, but remember to wield it wisely.
Reflect on how curiosity shapes your life and business, and identify areas where you could manage it better. Commit to implementing one or more earlier practical techniques, such as maintaining a time journal or limiting distractions to balance exploration and focus.
You'll unlock new opportunities for learning and creativity and ensure that your curiosity leads to meaningful outcomes.
How will you balance satisfying your curiosity and staying focused on your entrepreneurial goals?
The answers you need for your business are already within you.
If you’d like support in pulling them out to build a business you are proud of, I’m here to help.
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