Unlocking Possibilities: Reigniting Your Curiosity and Overcoming FATE

Part 2: What if you could unlock new possibilities and bring excitement into your life by simply fostering your curiosity? Join us in this eye-opening episode of The Koopalethes Podcast, where we examine the importance of curiosity in our lives and its numerous benefits, as reported by Harvard. We reveal the enemies of curiosity that can potentially crush this essential drive, and how to combat them.

We discuss how thinking we know it all and having an unchecked ego can shut down curiosity, before delving into the four major factors that hinder curiosity - Fear, Assumptions, Technology, and Ego. Discover how fear can be the most prominent factor, acting as the opposite of curiosity, and learn why embracing vulnerability is crucial for maintaining an inquisitive mind. Open your mind to new ideas and reignite your holy curiosity in this intriguing episode!

Chapters

• 0:00 The Importance of Curiosity
• 9:17 Factors That Kill Curiosity

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

The Kupulithis Podcast Cheers to now control All systems. Go upbeat music playing. Welcome to The Kupulithis Podcast. I am Nick Kupulithis, your host, and I am excited to be with you.

Speaker 1: 0:29

Episode 18, part two we are talking about the spice of life. The spice of life, listen. You can cook in your life with a lot of ingredients, but the secret ingredient, or at least one of the most important ingredients in your life, is curiosity. The more I have looked at curiosity, the more I want to have this spice in my life, because this spice is nice And it's so important. As we looked at in part one, you need the spice of life in science, in education, in leadership, in all your relationships, and when you lose the spice, you lose that inquisitive nature to discover new things and to experience people on deeper and deeper levels. So I'm jumping right into this. I am jumping right into this episode because it's a part two and I've been recording today, but I want to jump into this thing because I'm excited about curiosity.

Speaker 1: 1:31

Albert Einstein said this the important thing is not to stop questioning. Never lose a holy curiosity. Harvard reported on this. Now let me just pause for a second. I've been quoting a lot of different sources about curiosity, because I don't want you to overlook curiosity. Curiosity is one of those things you feel like, yeah, okay, i'm curious, it's no big deal. But there are so many sources that are like no, don't lose being a curious person, don't lose asking questions, don't lose looking at a subject or something from different perspectives. Okay, so Harvard, back to Harvard.

Speaker 1: 2:22

Harvard put this study out and said curiosity is not only important for those with high IQs. Successful students and people who are successful after college often display a good measure of intellectual curiosity. But why is curiosity so important? And Harvard gives four reasons. Number one it makes your mind active instead of passive. Why? Because you're asking questions.

Speaker 1: 2:53

And I would say this you're asking questions, that you're looking for answers. You want the answers, you're searching for answers And that's why your mind is active. It's a muscle, harvard says, that becomes stronger and stronger because you're continually exercising this idea of curiosity, of being inquisitive. Number two it makes your mind observant of new ideas. So you're asking questions, you're seeking out answers and what you come upon is new discoveries. You find that your mind is looking to find a better solution. It's going to anticipate it, it's going to go oh, i've been looking for that right there, you're going to see it. So now your mind is firing on all cylinders. It's active, It's observant of new ideas and you're recognizing them. But what else?

Speaker 1: 3:48

Harvard says this it opens up new worlds of possibilities. By being curious, you will be able to see new worlds and possibilities that are normally not visible. They are hidden behind the surface of normal life, and it takes a curious mind to look beneath the surface and discover these new worlds and possibilities. Do you know why? It's beyond normal life. It's not always visible because we humans are creatures of habit And we tell ourselves something and I think it's one of the greatest lies that we live out and that's that nothing ever changes.

Speaker 1: 4:35

It's the illusion that we are standing on a planet that is perfectly still. But the planet is spinning at 1,000 miles per hour, while it's orbiting the sun at 67,000 miles per hour. It's spinning so fast that the Earth is not even a circle. It's a sphere, because the equator of the Earth is actually further out from the center of the Earth than it is, let's say, from the north to the center of the Earth or the south to the center of the Earth. Because it's spinning so fast. We live on a sphere. And that's the illusion, right? The illusion is that everything is still. But no, it's moving. And here's the thing In life, we love the control mechanism where everything feels normal.

Speaker 1: 5:24

It makes us feel safe. But curiosity goes beyond the normal, it goes beyond the visible, it goes beyond And, yes, it might be a little bit crazy, it might be a little bit scary, it might be a little bit vulnerable, but it's the spice of life. I think that's the phrase, the spice of life. Curiosity It opens up new worlds and possibilities. And then the fourth one Harvard says this it brings excitement into your life. How do you kill boredom? Put spice on it. Curiosity How do you kill the routine that's dull? Put spice on it. Put the spice on it. Mm-mm-mm-mm, put the spice on it. I think I've had too much coffee right now. So what is Harvard saying? It says it makes your mind active, it makes your mind observant. It opens up new worlds and possibilities. It brings excitement into your life. I'm telling you, i'm in love with curiosity. I'm in love with curiosity. I don't know why I'm singing a lot. I probably weigh too much coffee.

Speaker 1: 6:35

But let's push on this a little bit, because let's talk about the enemies of curiosity. Let's talk about what comes against this thing in us to be curious. Because when you're a kid, you're curious about the world, You're curious about new stimuli, you're curious about new knowledge, you're curious to experience new things. And as you grow, you're experiencing new emotions and new sights and new sounds and new smells. And then it's sort of like you get to this point in your life where you feel like, well, i've experienced a lot of life And all of a sudden, very naturally, it's that your curiosity diminishes. And when your curiosity diminishes, that's when you lose that excitement for life, the hope that life can bring you. And so let's jump into this, let's jump into the enemies of curiosity. What kills your curiosity?

Speaker 1: 7:36

Forbes I wanna look probably at two different articles here, but Forbes has a great segment on this, and Forbes writes this as the world shifts into industry 4.0. Curiosity and learning are essential. The speed of change creates constant innovations, thereby requiring the ability to learn and adapt. The person who knows and tells but lacks the humility to be curious, learn and grow will find themselves irrelevant and lacking critical skills and perspectives needed to thrive in the modern era. Wow, now this is talking about industry, but couldn't we apply this to life, to your own job, to your own marriage, to your own kids, to your own, whatever it might be that you're a part of that. You might know and you might tell. But if you lack the ability to be curious, to learn and to grow, you lack that humility. Forbes is saying you're gonna find yourself lacking critical skills, you're gonna find yourself irrelevant, you're gonna find yourself that you don't have the right perspective. And if you want to thrive and this is about industry thriving in the modern era I would just say this if you wanna thrive in any part of your life, you need skills, you need to be relevant, you need the right perspectives and curiosity will help you get to those perspectives. And I would say curiosity with humility.

Speaker 1: 9:17

Forbes goes on and says two of the biggest factors in curiosity shutdowns, the things that are basically killing your curiosity, are two things, according to Forbes One, you think you know everything, and two, you have an unchecked ego. Oof, that hurts. Those are the two things that it's just. One you think you know it all, you know it all. And two you have an unchecked ego. I wanna apply those two things into another article by cornerstoneondemandcom, and this is the four major factors that crush curiosity, and they use the word fate as an acronym. And so let's look at this together, because I think some of you might have in a eureka moment where you say, oh, that's me, so let's talk about these things that kill your curiosity. Fate all right. F stands for fear.

Speaker 1: 10:15

Fear. It is the most prominent of the factors and is also opposite of curiosity. It's responsible for the dreaded quote yeah, but what if it doesn't work? And what if I fail? What if I look stupid on quote? Fortunately, most of our fears are not in penetrable walls, but fragile mirrors and glass. Now, nobody wants to look stupid, nobody wants to feel foolish, nobody wants that. But if you're going to seek out change, if you're going to see the world in a fresh way, you have to be willing to be vulnerable, and I would say there's a degree of vulnerability, but you have to be willing to open yourself up. If you're not willing to be vulnerable and at times look stupid or sound stupid or say something, then you're never going to be curious about the world, because it's easier to shut down and shut everything out and have fear and just try to escape. And maybe for you, in certain seasons of your life you're like that's how I lived. But what if it's time to come out of fear, and specifically fear of vulnerability?

Speaker 1: 11:33

Fear is a thing. Sometimes, even with this podcast, i thought well, what if nobody listens? Or what if I say the wrong things Or I have the wrong fact? And you know what? If I say the wrong things, then I can just come on another podcast and correct it. If I sound stupid or look stupid, then OK, you know what. You just have to get over yourself. I'm not a no at all. There's a lot for me to learn. I have to sometimes even get over my own ego. You know what? I'm not going to have an unchecked ego. I'm not going to try to have some persona that's not real. I got to get over my fear of vulnerability and move on.

Speaker 1: 12:13

So in the fate acronym, f is fear. What's your fear? Do you have a fear that keeps you from being curious, from asking questions, to trying new things, exploring and being inquisitive of new discoveries and fresh relationships? What's your fear? Does it come down to a fear of vulnerability? F is for fear, a is for assumptions. Familiarity I can't say that word ever is the curse of curiosity. We get comfortable with the way things have been always been done. Assumptions make our life easy, convenient and safe. Life easy, convenient and safe.

Speaker 1: 12:53

So I just want to comment on this, because assumptions is a tough thing. Right, assumptions you think you know something, you think you're aware of something, and so I assume I know it all. Right, it's that know it all And you know what. When I assume it and I feel like I know it all, guess what? It makes my world safe. But if I realize there's very few things that I can even know know in part, right, it's what you know versus how much you know. That's maybe a podcast in itself.

Speaker 1: 13:24

But I don't want to just live my life on assumptions and never try something new. Right? It's like if the only thing I ever ate in my life was Taco Bell And so I assumed everything else was horrible or everything else was not good. That would be incredibly wrong. But you know what? Some of us rather live on Taco Bell because we know what's in that food. Actually, we don't necessarily know what's in that food, but you know what's in that gordita, right, you know what's coming across that plate because you're ordering it. But many of us rather live in the land of Taco Bell than be curious and inquisitive and maybe find some fine dining, maybe go down the street and eat something that's actually healthy. And so we make these assumptions about life, but these assumptions many times limit us from the excitement and the new discoveries and all the things that we've been talking about. So F is fear, a is assumption, t is technology.

Speaker 1: 14:26

So, according to this article, technology has opened up a world of opportunity. Information is now available at our fingertips, but it is increasingly difficult to keep up. It is easy to be overwhelmed with social media and fake news. We don't need to remember phone numbers, directories or histories. We just Google it and answer, and answers appear. I'm gonna do a whole thing that technology has made us stupid, but it does. Technology makes us stupid. Technology makes us lazy. On the other hand, technology makes us brilliant. It makes us a lot more smarter than we really are. Technology enhances, but at the same time, the cost can be doesn't have to be our own.

Speaker 1: 15:09

Curiosity diminishes. When I was a kid, i remembered all my neighbor's phone numbers. Well, thank God for technology. But you know what? I know my wife's phone numbers, but I tell you the truth, i don't even know how my kid's phone numbers memorized, and so sometimes technology has taken away the experience of being curious because we feel like we can just luge it up, we can look it up, or we can go to Google Maps, we can go to Street View And it's like you know what? Street View is great, but you know what? I wanna be curious, i wanna be in that place. You know what I'm saying. Don't let technology in your life keep you from being curious. Keep you from really deep relationships.

Speaker 1: 15:56

Episphere A is assumptions, t is technology and E is environment. Article goes on and says we have been taught to conform and learn answers, not ask questions. We worry about what others think more than we wonder what can be. One of the most popular complaints I hear from managers concerning millennials and Gen Z Why can't they just do what we say? Managers just perpetuate the adulthood assault on curiosity but then complain about the lack of innovation and drive within the next generation.

Speaker 1: 16:31

So environment, so I would. Obviously it doesn't work within the fate acronym, but that environment it's like. What's the culture that I am cultivating? What am I stirring up? Because if the environment of my heart and my life, my company and our church is that we can't ask questions. We can't be inquisitive, we can't do that, then that's gonna shut down innovation, it's gonna shut down new revelation, it's gonna shut down new findings, new discoveries, but also it's gonna shut down relationships and deepening those relationships. So that environment, that culture of my heart, is so important to have a culture of curiosity, of looking at something and asking questions and diving deep into it. And I just wanna reiterate this it's not automatic. You have to stir it up.

Speaker 1: 17:30

So what's killing your curiosity? What's the thing that's shutting you down? Is it fear? Is it assumptions? Is it technology? Is it environment? Is it the fact that you act like you know everything, or you have an unchecked ego, that you don't need curiosity? you're too big for it? Maybe one of those things? I know for sure that a few of those things have definitely stifled my growth when it comes to curiosity, and I think you have to take a moment and go.

Speaker 1: 18:11

What am I missing? What am I missing? Every single person has something that they're focused on, whatever it might be, but sometimes, when we focus so hard on one area of our life, the curiosity for all the others disappear. I wanna be a good dad. I focus on this podcast. I focus on church I focus on. There's a bunch of things I've focused on, let's say, for work, but I don't wanna ever miss out on who my kids are and who they are becoming, and I never wanna have the assumption that just because I talked to them yesterday, i know them today. Obviously there's healthy assumptions, but do you hear my heart on that Cause?

Speaker 1: 19:08

what happens, especially to a lot of men, is that we throw ourselves into our work and we miss everything. Why? Because for a lot of us, work is a safe place. We don't wanna be vulnerable, we don't wanna open up, we don't wanna share our feelings, we don't wanna share our thoughts, we don't want, and sometimes there are certain relationships where it's not a safe environment. But guess what? You don't have to open up to everybody, you don't have to be vulnerable to everybody, but there are relationships that require to go deep, a sense of vulnerability, a sense of curiosity, a sense of asking questions.

Speaker 1: 19:48

And I wanna ask you where are you in this? What's your enemy of curiosity? What's killing that part of your life that I believe you were created to explore and to discover? What's your enemy? What's killing your curiosity? I you know the motivating, let me say it like this. The one of the motivating things for me in this whole idea of curiosity is what can be, what can be Meaning. I don't want to live my life in the status quo, i don't want to live under other people's expectations. I'm not talking about a rebellious heart here. I'm talking about missing out on the spice of life, which is curiosity, which leads to new discoveries. And again, i just want to say new discoveries for me is not just like a new planet per se, but it's rediscovering the people that are right around me. It's rediscovering passion for things. It's rediscovering why things in life are important. So these enemies of curiosity, they need to be addressed and they're holding you back, absolutely holding you back, and so what I'm going to do is, at the end of this, this episode, i'm going to make another episode. All right, there's going to be a part three to this And I'm going to talk about the traits of a person who is curious, and if we can apply those traits, if we can those characteristics and if we can apply those well, i believe we're going to experience life in a new, fresh and in a living way, and that's how we've been designed to listen.

Speaker 1: 22:07

Many years ago, i gave my life to Jesus and my life absolutely changed. It was transformed, literally transformed, and I just remember everything seemed new, everything seemed fresh, and I want to live in such a way where life is new and life is fresh And I don't want to live in such a way where I just I'm just in the routine and boredom of life. All right, part two over. I'm going to work on part three now. Thank you for listening. I really appreciate it. Let's become curious together. Let's add the spice of life. All right, peace out. Yes, you got to figure out how to spell that. But share, subscribe. See you next time. Just show up.