Insights

The one trait that will make you future-proof

July 18, 2018

My nephew’s son, 6-year old Ayaan, from Mumbai is visiting Bangalore.

Ayaan is an animal lover and he wanted me to take him to the Bannerghatta National Park in Bangalore.

At the Park, as we began the safari tour in the Park’s bus, Ayaan exploded with excitement. We were sitting on the last row of seats and he had a window to himself. As the bus started moving, he was looking in all directions to spot animals and birds, chattering constantly.

As soon as the driver stopped the bus and announced the spotting of an animal, Ayaan jumped up and ran to the front of the bus, looking out of the windows on either side. Demonstrating genuine curiosity, he squeezed himself between seated passengers and invaded their window space. He loudly demanded responses from the driver cum guide. Once his curiosity was satiated, he returned to his seat but jumped up again for the next spotting.

Once we were out of the bus, we headed to the vast zoo. Ayaan led our small expedition and ran in all directions towards the cages and snake pits, inside the Butterfly Park and towards water bodies where giant hippos lay happily immersed in muddy water.

I tried to keep pace with him. He had a zillion questions which he kept shooting at me. I knew nothing much and I suspect he was aware of my limitations. Fortunately, the well-designed sign boards saved the day and my reputation.

Since it was a Saturday, the zoo was a little crowded. There were many kids of Ayaan’s age jumping up and down, running spontaneously across the narrow and winding paths, screaming and shouting in excitement. This was genuine curiosity on full display.

I looked at the parents accompanying the children. Most were devoid of emotions. Holding bags of supplies, they seemed to be ‘on duty’ – it seemed like another tick-in-the-box project. I spotted many of them on the phone, probably tying up some loose ends of a critical project back at work. They looked distant, tired and exhausted. They were getting visibly irritated with the constant barrage of questions from their children. In contrast to their super excited children, the parents seemed to be in a drab and lifeless, ‘been-there-done-that’ mode. There was absolutely no curiosity at all.

In comparison, I seem to have still retained some childlike curiosity. I may not have demonstrated Ayaan’s energy levels but I was participating in reading out the sign boards for him in a sing-song tone, discussing the potential dangers of each of those animals, mimicking the loud parakeets and speculating with him on what would happen if a T-Rex charged towards our bus.

Looking at the parents, I wondered if this is what adults are meant to grow into – numbed by adulthood into a state of zero fascination and zero spontaneity. There seemed to be no scope for that tantalizing curiosity to the point of flirting with Life. Is this what an adult’s response to Life is meant to be?

The world is going through sweeping and tumultuous changes. The changes are only getting more complex. Life is getting to be more fascinating. While there are new challenges, there are, in comparison, many new opportunities. I choose to believe that there was never a better time to be alive than now.

In order to make meaning of all these new dimensions and how they are going to play out in our future, we need to develop ‘genuine curiosity’ as a critical competency, not just for a career but for Life, as well.

‘Genuine curiosity’ will help us abandon the now highly risky ‘been-there-done-that’ approach. We will be ready to say those three magical words, ‘I-don’t-know’, that make us vulnerable and, therefore, open doors to new learning.

We will no longer be the warm bodies that we have become – we will be, genuinely, alive. We will learn from our observations, from our experiences and from each other. We will celebrate Life.

There is an old proverb: ‘Curiosity killed the cat’. This proverb was to warn us of the dangers of unnecessary investigation and experimentation.

That was a different world.

For the new world, may I suggest a slight twist?

Curiosity skilled the cat‘.

 

For those who are curious to know where their life and career could take them, I help in identifying powerful life and career goals through a variety of tools. 

Interested? Write to me at [email protected].

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