5 Reasons To Be More Curious:

They say that curiosity killed the cat, but what they don’t talk about all too often is how that cat ended up living a good 18 years before it died, and its curiosity led it to learn a great deal about its life, its surroundings, the people in its life, who to trust and who to avoid and what to approach and how to get closer to the things it didn’t understand.

With that, as the head of one of Australia’s leading private investigation bureaus, my colleagues and I are often baffled by how many clients get in touch with us to follow up on their suspicions, only to find that the answers they were looking for were right in front of their noses. Had they been a little more curious, themselves, they probably would have got to the bottom of their issues all on their own.

Obviously don’t necessarily advise that people pull off their own stings or go undercover to expose the local drug ring, or try to set up secret surveillance all over the place for that matter – but do promote curiosity!

Please join us as we go over all the “pros” of being curious, without it leading to your death, that is… after all, it’s in our nature as private detectives, so we know all about how powerful the characteristic can be.

5 Reasons Why You Should Be More Curious:

Let’s start with the most obvious benefit of curiousity;

1) You’ll learn more
While some people find learning tedious and boring, we find that this is only the case because of the way in which they may have spent their time learning in the past. Cramming information from books, listening intently to lecturers or watching mind-numbing videos… or even a ghastly teacher from back in the day can all be reasons that people don’t enjoy diving into new subjects, and we’re not talking mathematics and astrophysics here.

Curious people tend to ask more questions and, of course, with good, reasonable questioning, people can learn a great deal. Whether you’re looking at a product in the store that you’ve never tried, a particular meal in a restaurant that you’ve never heard of or even a road that you’ve never been down, just ask yourself, “What if?”

What if that road gets you home faster? What if that product ends up saving you a ton of money down the line? What if that meal is the best thing you’ve ever tasted?

Now, the pessimists in the room will argue, “Yeah, what if that route gets me lost?” or “What if that meal’s disgusting?” Well, with that, you can already see that there’s room for a lesson in there and, moreover, our next point;

2) You’ll Have More To Talk About
Whether your curiosity led you to discover something fantastic, or something awful, the next time you’re in a meeting, out on a date, or with friends for lunch, you’ll find that your newfound life experiences will always have some relevance to the discussions you’re having. Moreover, if your curiosity ever leads to a bad experience, you’ve just created the basis for an anecdote! People sitting in on presentations will usually come to expect a load of business jargon, so if you can throw in some whimsical reflections, based on your experiences, you’ll find that you’ll be able to engage with your audience better, and the same goes for stagnating dates and grumpy colleagues. On the other hand, if you stumbled upon something a little more positive, share it with the ones you love or those that might need to hear about it – you’ll be surprised at how much better it can make you and your listeners feel to know that there’s still some good out there.

3) You’ll Be More Inspired
Inspiration isn’t only for artists, in fact, every Monday morning when you get up dreading the week ahead, or you’re hungover on a Saturday morning, the curiosity that you embraced the week before may have taught you something that you can use to overcome those feelings of anxiety, illness or boredom. We’re not suggesting that everything you do has to be physical either; you could just end up reading something online that you’d never have thought about visiting before, or reading through a section of the paper that you’d usually avoid. It’s amazing how much you can learn from the people, objects and experiences of those around you. For example, that product you tried in the store may have grabbed your attention because it had a simplistic logo or an interesting design that you’d not seen before – that’s ammunition for the next time you come to pitch something, as is the conversation you may have had with the store clerk as you both revelled at the weird contraption you just bought.

4) Your Problem Solving Skills Will Improve
We’re not talking Sudoku here, we’re looking at the bigger picture. By trying new things, you’ll quickly discover what works and what doesn’t, and like our dear friend the cat, you’ll also gain a better insight in how to approach certain situations with more care or more certainty. Take the “road less travelled” as an example; over the weekend you decide to get in your car and venture to a place you’ve never been before, way out in the middle of nowhere. As you’re driving along, you encounter some rough terrain that your car wasn’t made to handle, and you decide to press on (thank you curiousity). A few metres in, your car sinks into the deep sand and you get stuck. After calling the NRMA or RAC, you get dragged out and told that your tyre pressures are too high and, had you just deflated them a bit, you’d have been fine. A weird life lesson now, perhaps, but ten years on when you’ve decided to visit Africa with your buddies and you want to go fishing on some remote beach, you’ll remember that driving in soft sand requires soft tyres. The same basis here goes for nearly everything in life… ever heard the saying, “don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it?”

5) You’ll Have More Appreciation
By digging deeper into the things around you, the people that you interact with and the ways in which things are done or made, you’ll find that you gain a better perspective of them, what they’ve been through and what they’re capable of. Curiosity can ultimately lead to you becoming a better judge of character, whether it be for someone that’s just joined your team at work or even inanimate objects like a dodgy watch that you’re being sold in the markets. Once you’ve seen the other side of the coin, you’ll be able to relate better to what you have and appreciate the things that others do and say. It doesn’t always necessarily have to be all fun and games, you can have negative appreciations as well, but what we’re saying is that by being more curious, you’ll have a much larger pool of comparatives to assist you in determining the situation. Thus, you’ll have more appreciation for whatever it is you’re getting yourself into.

We’re only stopping at 5 because we don’t want to keep you here all day, but curiosity has an incredible range of perks that you’ll only discover by being more curious!

Now, we understand that some people just aren’t – they never have been and they’ll probably claim that they never will be curious… so we’ve put together a 5-step guide that aims to show you how to be:

5 Steps To Becoming More Curious:

1) Get Involved With Things Out of Your Comfort Zone
Just because you’ve never tried it, doesn’t mean it’s not going to teach you a thing or two. Try ordering from the restaurant you walk past and ignore everyday and you might just meet the love of your life; follow that blogger that keeps popping up on your newsfeed and discover that your views on his or her subject are actually completely wrong and; ask your boss more questions about the project at hand and help him or her realise that you’re really interested in what they’ve got to say – a promotion could be just a few “whys” away.

2) Don’t Dwell On The Past
Research shows that as we grow older, we let our tougher lessons lead us into the future, making it harder for us to accept new experiences as we get on. Forget about it! Ok, well not entirely, but if something didn’t quite work out the way you intended, don’t let it effect your chances of trying again. You might just have had a bad day, or done something wrong without even noticing. Get in there and try again.

3) Engage in Strategy Games
Ok, this is a weird one, we know, especially for people who don’t enjoy gaming all that much. I, for one, used to hate games… but that’s changed over the years. The reason we suggest strategy games (and it has to be a good one) is because your curiosity will be fuelled as you move through the game’s levels, being enticed with new features or perks as you go and, with today’s tech in gaming, there’s a great deal of lateral thinking that you don’t really get the opportunity to advance in everyday life. As a starter, for people who don’t want to tie themselves to anything long term, or expensive, try Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft which is available for free from the Apple and Google Play Stores.

4) Purposefully Change Your View
Even if you don’t believe in the opposite of what you think, by forcing yourself to change your perspective will inevitably make you ask yourself and those around you more questions about it. Better yet, if you’re alone, it’ll spur you on to look things up and justify whether you were right or wrong in the first place. If you come away with the same feelings, then at least along the way you will have given people the opportunity to express themselves to you and picked up on a few things, whether it be as simple as new vocabulary or as complex as an entirely new mindset.

5) Say Yes More Often
Partially inspired by Danny Wallace’s book and the hit movie, Yes Man, by allowing yourself to accept more invitations to interact and engage with the things and people around you, you’re opening yourself up for a world of new experiences that will only help you to become a better, wiser and more approachable human being.

So what’s all this got to do with Private Investigations? Well, as we mentioned earlier, these points are all deeply ingrained into our minds as professionals in the field, and usually lead us to the right answers when we put our minds to the tasks at hand – all because we’ve either been born with or developed a true sense of curiosity that allows us to perceive the world and those within it with a wider scope and a more intricate understanding of how all the pieces fit together.

While we do insist that you build on your curiosity, it’s also important to know your limits and appreciate when it can get you into trouble. When that is the case, but you’re still adamant about getting answers, then it’s time to call in a professional… and that’s where we come in.

Precise Investigation has served the Australian community as one of the country’s foremost Private Investigation firms for three decades, offering up critical evidence to the innocent and exposing lies, fraud and corruption within business, government and the domestic markets.

If you’re ever in need of a professional, discrete and highly effective Private Investigator:

Call Precise Investigation today on 1300 856 011 for a professional, Private Investigation Service

We have operatives stationed nationwide, regularly servicing the likes of Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Sydney, Hobart, Brisbane and even the more remote areas of Australia – so wherever you are and whatever your issues, be they personal or commercial, just get in touch and we’ll help you to overcome them.

Image credit – Thank you Naomi Moneypenny from Flickr