Curiosity is the Courage to Let Your Life Surprise You

Lately I’ve been thinking about curiosity. Not the kind that wins trivia contests. Nope. The kind that changes lives. For most of my life I believed confidence came first. Then I started trying a bunch of new things. Now I think I had it backwards.

I discovered that curiosity comes first and confidence follows.

Curiosity asks, “I wonder what would happen if...?”

Confidence says, “I can do this again.”

Every meaningful thing I have done over the last several years started with curiosity. I wondered what would happen if I gave up animal products. I wondered what would happen if I went back to school at 77. I wondered if I could become a life coach or build a website. I wondered, if I wrote the blogs, who would read them? The list goes on. Here is the thing. None of these questions, if answered, came with guarantees. Nope. Only possibilities.

Curiosity has a beautiful quality. It does not demand certainty. It simply invites exploration. Children understand this naturally. They touch. They ask. They experiment. They fail. And then they laugh it all off and try again.

I think somewhere along the way many of us stopped asking. We traded curiosity for certainty. We wanted guarantees before taking the first step. I have learned something different. Life rarely rewards certainty. It rewards curiosity.

Curiosity has introduced me to new friends, new ideas, new possibilities, new passions, and even revealed a bit of a new version of me. None of which I could have planned.

The older I get, the more convinced I become that curiosity isn’t childish at all. In fact, it is courageous. Because every curious question carries risk. Right?

What if I fail?

What if people laugh?

What if it doesn’t work?

But here’s the thing. What if it does?

Perhaps curiosity is not about finding answers. Perhaps it is about giving life permission to surprise us?

And, I have to say, some of life’s greatest surprises have become my favorite chapters.

💚 Suz, The Accidental Blogger