Daily Inspiration: “An inquisitive mind is a wonderful thing: embrace the curiosity of your inner child!”

“An inquisitive mind is a wonderful thing: embrace the curiosity of your inner child!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

A secret for success when the world around you is changing so fast? Always ask the questions that a 5 year old might ask!

Their viewpoint is not yet clouded by cynicism, skewed by skepticism, or fuelled by fear. Their innocence lets them explore the world around them — and what they see — in a manner which is not yet filtered by preconceived notions.

Too often, people fail at the future because their past holds them back. In this way, past experience becomes a cancer on creativity.

But if you can somehow remove those blinders and barriers, you can start to see the world in a different way. That’s why I’ve always suggested that one of the best ways to fire up your creative innovation is to do the things you might not normally do – isn’t this how a 5 year old explores the world around them?

With that in mind, here are some thoughts:

• go to a conference that is completely unrelated to your career and the industry in which you work – learn something new
• hang out with people who are very different that you are
• rather than arguing with a viewpoint you don’t like, try to get to the foundation of the other opinion through some careful research
• try and do one thing every day that you might not otherwise do
• take apart that failed project that you are ashamed of, and see what things actually did go right – and learn from them!
• take apart something that you always wanted to deconstruct – and don’t worry about putting it back together
• challenge your mindset! I’d hazard a guess that those who are optimistic about the future are far more willing to ask the questions and do the challenging things to get them to that future
• look forward, not back! Generate more questions that will help you discover tomorrow than the ones that will help you analyze what you did yesterday
• play more! Unleash your inner child!

However you do it, spend some time to enhance and embrace your curiosity, because more than anything, curiosity is the root of all creativity!