Posted on August 31, 2010 by Jennifer Yount

By Jennifer Yount, guest author.

Over the past several years, I have been exploring curiosity in an effort to strengthen my “curiosity muscle”. When I began this process I found myself in a conundrum. In fact, I was even questioning why I needed to be curious. How would being curious benefit me or my clients? However, the training program said I needed to be curious, so like a good student I wanted to complete the exercise. As part of strengthening this muscle, I was asked to spend an hour lying under the kitchen sink and be curious (are you kidding me?). Let’s say, I failed that exercise – my excuse – “think how much cleaning I will need to do first”. However, in reflection, the real reason was “what thing can I possibly find curious under my sink, that’s stupid”. Weeks passed and no curiosity. Then on a business trip, I went for it and layed under the vanity sink. Before I knew it, I was curious about this leak and that different pipe color and on and on.

Curiosity! What happened to it? I find I was not unique in my lack of curiosity. I believe many of us are curiosity weaklings. Here’s my explanation for this – as small children, we were curious about everything from how dirt tasted to where we came from. We wanted to touch, taste, and question everything. We continually asked questions. We were “curiosity muscle men and women”… and then it happened! The adults in our lives started saying don’t touch that; don’t eat that; I don’t have time to answer that; No; and so forth. In no time, we went from curiosity muscle men and women to curiosity weaklings. Now, we totally sacrifice our curiosity for believing we know it all, or we simply give up in an effort to please others or just stop wondering altogether. Whatever the reason, we stopped being curious (and even forgot we could be curious).

However, as adults we have the choice to decide how curious we want to be. We can be curious about how things actually feel and taste. We can be curious again about the how and why. When we become curious, we have permission to stop doing and start being; to stop thinking and start feeling. This is the lesson I have learned as a coach and a coaching client. Like any other muscle, the curiosity muscle requires exercise or it will be weak. And like any other muscle, it will also require time and effort to become strong again. One exercise recommended to me by my coach which I have used many, many times with my clients is searching for “Cool Surprises”. A “Cool Surprise” is something that comes out of the blue and surprises you. I use the word searching, because at first it may feel like you are searching for a hidden treasure without a map. With just a little effort, you will find cool surprises all around you. Cool surprises surround you in everyday life and you walk right past them. For the curious though, they see the cool surprise; acknowledge how cool it is; and find a new bounce in their step in search of the next “Cool Surprise”.

Are you ready to become a “Curiosity Muscle Woman or Man? Then today, begin your transformation by taking a curiosity walk in search of “Cool Surprises”. You will be amazed at what you find and how you feel!

About the author: Jennifer Yount is a Bay Area life coach on Noomii. See her full profile.