What made you curious today?
Today’s journal prompt is: What made you curious today?
If I asked you this question after bumping into each other on the street, you’d first think, “That’s weird” but something might come to mind. More likely, you’ll stop walking and say something like, “Huh. I don’t know. Nothing? Nothing.”
It’s a tough one to answer on demand. Most of us aren’t in the habit of noting what piques our interest and prompts us to pull up Google or YouTube.
But this exact moment happens often. We hear of something. We want to know more. Then, we’re off picking up breadcrumbs, one after another- sometimes for an hour or more.
This tendency to get distracted is something that really bugs me about myself. I regularly rewind and replay my well-rehearsed lecture on why I’m so terrible for wasting time.
And while I’m not giving up on my pursuit of greater productivity, I wonder if there is another way to look at the time we spend searching up things not on our to-do list.
These are our curiosities.
They’re clues to our interests that live just below the surface. They’re the things we can’t “think” into existence. They spontaneously pop up for air only when prompted by something novel we see, hear, or feel.
A one-off curiosity might be interesting. A collection of curiosities invites us to look for a pattern.
We’ve all heard the advice, “Follow your passion.” An alternative suggested by author Liz Gilbert is, “Follow your curiosities.”
Acknowledging and understanding what pulls us to know more is important. It becomes especially important when we ask ourselves “what’s next” in our careers and lives.
So today’s journal prompt is this: What made you curious today?
If something comes that made you curious today comes to mind, great! If not, this is an opportunity to notice and learn something about yourself over a couple of days or weeks. Maybe instead of giving yourself a hard time for veering off-task, you make a little note on what grabbed your attention.
What about that thing made you want to know more?
