Dreams Start With Patience #45

Reading time: 5 minutes

For the unfulfilled, the 9-5'ers, those who feel bound by metaphorical chains.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

This tunnel is yours to build.

Whether you're in the depths of hell or simply bored with your existence.

You're going to want to read this…

 Concept first:

This is going to be a long newsletter.

7 Lessons for turning curiosity into passion.

Curiosity is the playful spirit we all contain within ourselves.

The energetic pulse of:

- Traveling to somewhere foreign

- Meeting new people

- Learning a skill

These all contribute to the question:

"How is this going to play out?"

Curiosity is a neutral energy to tap into.

You can harness this natural energy and mold it into something you can't shut up about.

When you're naturally curious about a person, place, or thing:

Life provides an abundance of questions.

I believe some people are born with a higher level of curiosity than others.

When you're curious about life and set out in search of your purpose.

You begin to search for the bigger and better questions to ask.

These questions become the compass that guides you.

The curious individual develops an open mind as a byproduct of being in the curious frame.

Open-mindedness guides most to a few areas of life:

1. Science

2. Psychology

3. Spirituality

4. Math

5. Writing

Do you notice how the majority of these fields are not about chasing answers?

All 5 of these domains focus on:

Questions.

The How of "Curiosity"

The how plays a crucial role in the development of your curiosity into a passion.

The present moment is essential to your curious nature.

Provided you approach this with a few structures.

Systems for the cultivation of curiosity exist in lists.

First system:

Every few months or so, write down everything you are curious about at this moment.

Aim for 15.

Trim it down to 3-5.

Where is your curiosity the strongest?

Second system:

Take time to generate a "question directory"

Steal, think, or discover the questions that give you a new perspective.

I ask myself a few questions as journaling prompts.

Books and newsletters are good places to search/steal better questions.

Your mind runs on default questions.

Questions are how we approach our problems.

The higher-level the thinking about the questions the higher level the perspective is.

Once the questions are in place about what it is you're curious about:

It provides real-time impact when you have a project, business, or self-improvement endeavor.

If you don’t grow you choose inertia, and through inertia, this causes a metaphorical death before your physical death.

Why should I even care about my curious nature?

Didn't curiosity kill the cat?

Curiosity is your lifeboat.

Sure, being too curious can cause problems specifically through choice fatigue and information overwhelm.

It helps to paint the picture through the lens of the greatest innovators:

-Steve Jobs

-Nikola Tesla

-Thomas Edison

-Richard Feynman

-Leonardo Da Vinci

If these individuals weren't naturally curious we wouldn't be where we are today as a species.

I can imagine the curiosity loop inside of them never closed before their deaths.

Even on their death bed, I would bet they were still asking the deeper questions about:

Life, science, the human body, and the universe.

But, through the inspiration and passion they've given to others as a result of their curious questions.

The world has improved significantly.

We've evolved through:

-Technology

-Science

-Art

If you choose the path of the curious just know you can also achieve greatness.

The power of curiosity doesn’t come without drawbacks.

Many people confuse curiosity with novelty-seeking.

The two experiences overlap certainly but for a better understanding.

Novelty-seeking is about the FEELING.

Curiosity is about the questioning.
The lack of understanding but the feeling of wanting to know more, and more.

This usually leads to 2 problems many curious individuals face:

1. Information overload

Those who enjoy the act of learning are naturally curious about the way the world and the people around them work.

As technology has developed we have the Library of Alexandria at our fingertips… and then some.

Human beings can’t process that much information - consciously.

In the quest for knowledge curious individuals start to cram as much as possible.

Think of the college student who stays up ALL NIGHT “studying” for the exam he has in the morning.

This was me 6 years ago.

My natural curiosity wasn’t aligned with the college classes I was in.

So, I procrastinated and thought I could cram the information the night before.

The result? Decision fatigue, stress, and minimal focus on the test. I got a B+.

2. Social Isolation

Being curious has multiple implications.

For instance, you are more than likely going to struggle with social situations.

You’ll want to talk about X but often your friends and family aren’t interested.

This is why it’s so important to leverage the internet to find people who are also curious about the same things.

You also will eventually have a constant fear of missing out (FOMO)

FOMO is easily defeated though through commitment.

Commit to one curiosity.

Realize there is an endless amount of options in life.

Not committing is committing to not committing.

The stuff you're curious about?

I guarantee there's a wealth of people just itching to talk about it.

If you're curious about one thing - there is more than likely a connection to be made about it.

There could even be an entire community (offline or online) dedicated to this one idea.

The only way to find out is to search for it.

With the internet, this has never been easier.

Other people are important for the optimal curious mindset.

Because you may be passionate about fishing.

It's a part of your identity because you go fishing so much.

But, you haven't experienced the best part of curiosity yet by doing it alone.

When you bring in others, the passion evolves.

The evolution?

Purpose.

With other beings around there are significantly more problems.

More ups and more downs.

So, when finding your purpose it presents a challenge.

It's not an external one but an internal challenge.

This challenge is your purpose - would you look at that? It's all a derivative of being naturally curious.

I can't tell you what your purpose is.

I can tell you're searching for it though (like most people)

I'm just here to guide you in thinking about this process.

Once you have clarity on your life's direction - nothing big or small can shake you out of it.

The productivity application:

The way to achieve the result of transmuting the energy of curiosity into something you're passionate about is easier said than done.

Let's look at a productivity approach.

If you commit 20 minutes of your time to developing this list of curiosities you'll gain clarity.

Then you go on to use this clarity of what you want to do with your life:

1. Set goals (NICE framework)
Ali Abdaal’s NICE Goals framework is a better system than traditional SMART goals.

Near-term (meaning smaller timeframe)
Input-based (forget about chasing the outcomes)
Controllable (lots of goals are out of reach because they’re unrealistic)
Energizing (Can you integrate play, power, and people into your goals?)

(I just finished Feel Good Productivity by Ali Abdaal, highly recommend it)

2. Create projects for the abundance mindset to get to work with.

3. Use it to reflect and increase all areas of your life (wealth, health, and happiness)

The passion becomes a side effect of focus and clarity.

The focus and clarity lead to improved questions and challenges.

When you feel good, you perform better.

Doing the right things in life will never cause burnout.

A friend once told me I was suffering from burnout because what I was doing wasn't in alignment with what I ACTUALLY wanted to do.

Finding what you genuinely want to be doing is the most important thing in your life you can commit to.

The time application (avoiding burnout, sustaining)

The law of entropy:

All natural and technological processes of energy decrease over time.

Energy flows continuously until it is dispersed.

As human beings, we are both natural and technological.

The exercise I mentioned above continues to provide a "beginner mindset"

Anytime you begin something - there is novelty attached to it.

Because of this novelty, our neurochemistry is excited.

Excitement is a leading motivator in the realm of psychology and performance.

If you are in your 20s, bored of life already, indulging in cheap entertainment without any sense of "I need to improve" your life is without excitement. Real excitement.

If you're struggling to wake up in the morning and get after it you should go back and reread this.

Here's my digital product (The Patience Paradigm) it's free.

It is a more in-depth version of this newsletter.

Take the time to flesh it out.

To sustain this passion, you need time to reflect.

In my experience, at 20 years old.

I thought my passion was photography.

But my real passion was helping people get to where they want to be.

People are my passion.

You could say writing is just my way of navigating this passion and solving problems is my purpose.

Thanks for reading!

Another way I can help you when you are ready.
1. Work with me! Coaching for writing and recording long-form content

2. The Patience Paradigm (curiosity → passion course)
   FREE DIGITAL PRODUCT
   
   Your friend who wants you to nail down your curiosity.
   -Zachariah