You Were Born With a Natural Sense of Curiosity
I was sitting at Mass recently, when a couple with a large family sat a few rows in front of my wife and me. The couple had recently had twins born to them. During the mass, the babies woke up and were being held by the Mom and Dad. As babies are inclined to do, the babies were looking around at their surroundings. They were attracted to the Christmas wreaths on the pillars of the church, the lights, other members of the congregation, and frankly any item that caught their site.
In thinking about this after mass, I felt a touch of sadness, since I feel that is something we lose as we continue to move forward in our life. Maybe it is because we are jaded by things that have happened in our past. Perhaps we are so completely wrapped up in our thoughts, or the messages on our telephones, or whatever distracts us, that we miss out on what is going on immediately around us. As such, we miss opportunities to learn and observe from our world around us.
Yes little ones can get themselves into trouble when they become too curious and get into things that may hurt them. However, as we get older, one would help our sense of judgment would mature and we would have a sense of what may be OK to learn about and pursue, and what to avoid. When I work with job searchers, and I talk to them about the job search process, and the steps of the process, the 2nd of the 5 steps I speak of is “Research.” Research is fueled by curiosity. I encourage those who work or meet me, and look for guidance in the process, to do research of two different kinds.
One set is what I would term “look-up research.” At one time that was the reading of books, or newspapers or trade journals, etc. Today it can still be those, but has also been supplemented by what is available to us in online resources. The other component of research which is all around us, are other people with whom to have conversations. Often those I meet in search are only looking to meet those who may either be able to hire them, or immediately know of job openings. I encourage those that work with me, to also speak to others who may work in the fields they are targeting, or companies that do the type of work they are looking to do. Those connections and discussions may not lead directly to a job offer, but may provide valuable guidance on the types of things those who need one’s skills need to see from you, before they consider making a hiring offer.
Sometimes my suggestions are met with the line “Gee, I had not thought of that,” and gets someone refocused in terms of steps they may want to take as part of their job search process. At other times I will get “I tried that already,” and from the tone of their voice you know the first foray was not successful. When pursuing further, you tend to find they tried one person, received no response, and decided that the technique of connecting and speaking to others would not work for them. Or, there can be a feeling of I really don’t have the desire to do what you are saying I should be doing, because all I want is the end result and not the detail that goes in between.
We all come into this world NOT KNOWING EVERYTHING. It is over the course of our life we learn from our experiences, our learnings in school and in life after formal schooling, and from what may come in front of us, in the form of information. And, certainly you have the right to choose what you would like to pursue and know more about, and what you may choose to pass you by. However, if you find yourself in a situation (which is very common among the population with which I work), that the type of job you may be doing is no longer in demand, that the company you have worked for is closing up or being overtaken by another, or that your customers have new needs and demands in terms of the services you provide, going back to that innate curiosity with which we are all born, is a great way of learning about the ever changing world around you, and how you are meant to contribute to it.
