Curiosity is an underrated and, yet, essential quality both in business and personal life. Why? Be curious, read the article below.
When you are genuinely curious, you do not judge. You listen, really listen, to your clients, without letting your own life conditioning get in the way of truly serving clients.
This is equally true of entrepreneurs and business owners. Being genuinely curious is underrated, undervalued, and often just about nonexistent. Not many people are actually curious anymore. When was the last time you asked a question without knowing or assuming the answer? No, really?
When we have it all figured out — our world and everyone else’s — there is very little space left to be curious. By falling victim to our own stories, we lose interest in how we really feel about something, or how anyone else really feels. We don’t actually want to know anymore.
We think we can predict what another person will say. What we are really doing is projecting our limited understanding onto them. This projection is damaging on a personal level. It is even more dangerous on a business level. The moment entrepreneurs succumb to projection and stop listening, their business stops growing.
How many times have you witnessed or participated in this scene? A loved one shows curious interest in something we think or feel. Instead of answering honestly, we snap, “You don’t know how I feel about that?” It’s as if revisiting our opinion on something is as unlikely as going to the moon.
In this scene, the attitude and reply kill the flow of life between the people involved. When we shut the door on conversation, we squash others’ curiosity. Even more sadly, we crush our own. Whatever happened to our natural flexibility and ever-changing opinions? How did we become so stagnant?
If you find your curiosity waning, never fear! A life of truly expressing yourself — for who you are and what you feel in the moment — is always possible. Ask yourself how being curious at work can make you more alive in your daily work life and improve your relationships with others in your personal and business life.
4 Tips to Boost Your Curiosity
Learn how to be curious again. Take a deep breath and try this exercise:
- Close your eyes and be genuinely curious about being curious.
- Like a child, let yourself connect with your wonderfully inquisitive mind.
- Remember how it felt to ask questions with the inner spark of a fresh mind and a real yearning to discover new answers.
- Remember being interested in the world around you, without being restricted by any particular interpretation of how things should be.
Bring Curious Back! Become, or continue, being the curious entrepreneur.
XOXO Monica
Download for free “30 Days To a New You”
Business Success Coach, Monica Magnetti, supports her clients to embrace change by living in the present and trusting themselves. Her book 30 DAYS TO A NEW YOU: Get What You Want Through Authentic Change offers tremendous practical tools for embracing change and becoming authentic. Download it FREE.
Originally published at www.lunacoaching.com on March 1, 2017.
Originally published at medium.com