They say, “necessity is mother of invention”, however I think “Curiosity is mother of invention”! Imagine, had there not been “curious” Columbus, would America be found.? Or would it take some other “Curious Columbus2” to get us there? And when would it have happened?

“I have no particular talent. I am merely inquisitive.” – Albert Einstein

Curiosity…

“The greatest virtue of a man is perhaps curiosity!” – Anatole France

Did you even notice, a kid has many questions! So many that many times parents find it difficult to satiate him/ her with answers! And of course, guess that happens through of life spans, we would find some people more “questioning” than others. Just remember that class peer of yours from 8^th standard, asking plethora of questions to teachers, that at times teachers would ask him/ her to come over to teachers’ room later.

And like humans are blessed with many abilities like feelings, ability to express in various ways, curiosity is just another one! And did you notice, most of our abilities stay through or increase, whereas “curiosity” tends to get lower as we grow!!

“As children, we all possess a natural uninhabited curiosity, a hunger for explanations, which seems to die slowly as we age–suppressed, I suppose by the need not to appear ignorant.” – Mahlon Hoagland

And as I reflected, yes, this could be one of the major reasons, that we wish to “show off” that we are cognizant of (almost) everything, we know (all)! Another reason which could possibly be is “we are in a perpetual state of hurry”! We are possibly so much overwhelmed with things we need to do/ have to do, that we don’t have time for curiosity… so much so that we (unknowingly) feel it’s a waste of time!

Many a people would have seen a fruit fall from a tree. Newton questioned this to come out with “Theory of Gravity”! His curious mind made him think of “why” did this happen and then there was revelation!

And doesn’t Curiosity get us to the root of most things? More often we look at the symptoms of the issues, and as you ask questions, it opens plethora of challenges beneath… the root causes. Unless we address them, the problem(s) shall keep recurring!

Curiosity, they say sparks the innovation! And I was wondering, is it only the innovation? To get to know “what it is” here and now, also needs the same passionate inquisitiveness.

And as one reflects, everything that came into existence/ got found or discovered .. curiosity would have been the driving factor. Could you imagine, someone risking his/ her life into the dead of the sea to find out what is there beyond? And if they never did so, how would we know the world beyond our horizon?

What is beyond and what is beneath?!

Coaching relevance:

Genuine curiosity is supercritical in coaching! All you do is exploration… coachee is capable to solve his/ her issue, and you help only through exploration. Only curiosity can help this process. As you ask questions which makes coachee dive into the reasons, why, what ….

“You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives!” Unknown

About the Author: Uday is currently undergoing his coach certification credential with Coach-To-Transformation. He is a Mechanical Engineer by education and has worked in Engineering/ Maintenance most of his career of close to 30 years now. Currently he’s heading HSSE (Health Safety Security and Environment) for APM Terminals’ Asia operations.