Have you ever felt irritated when things didn’t go the way you planned?
I’ve learned that curiosity is a powerful tool for personal growth. In my research, curiosity was the eighth and final element of wisdom I identified, but I came to realize that it supports all seven of the others. It opens us up to new perspectives.
As Socrates famously said, “Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.”
Approaching situations with curiosity encourages us to question what we think we know and consider new possibilities. It can also help us accept when life doesn’t go according to plan.
I experienced this recently when I invited people to my home for dinner. I had everything planned, and then one guest suggested we eat outside because the weather was beautiful. My immediate reaction was that this wasn’t how I had planned things, and my instinct was to resist changing the plan.
Instead, I chose to be flexible and went along with the suggestion; it turned out to be phenomenal.
That evening I realized how I could have missed that experience because I was attached to how I thought things should go.
When we are rigid in our expectations, we limit what we’re open to experience. Instead of resisting something different, we can become curious about what it might offer.
You don’t have to abandon your plans. You do have to be willing to consider another possibility.
This Wisdom Wednesday, try replacing “That’s not how it’s supposed to be” with “What could happen if I approached this differently?”
You might be surprised by what you discover!
