1: “Fortune favors the curious,” Sahil Bloom writes in his book The 5 Types of Wealth.
As it turns out, curiosity is an actual “Fountain of Youth.”
Yesterday, we looked at how curiosity makes us healthier as we age—both mentally and physically.
The bad news? “Unfortunately, that raw childhood curiosity we’re born with slowly atrophies throughout our adult lives,” Sahil writes.
We begin our lives brimming with curiosity. It is “part of our manufacturer’s default setting,” he notes. We “are literally born with it.
“If we have children or have spent time around children, we’ve seen firsthand what true, uninhibited curiosity looks like. . .
“Curiosity is how we learn about the world,” Sahil observes, “and how we stay alive.”
But then, life happens.
“Reality sets in,” he notes, “the need to provide, the ‘busyness’ of life, the urgency of just about everything—and curiosity takes a permanent back seat.”
The science backs up this conclusion.
“Intellectual curiosity and degree of openness to new experiences appear to decline with age,” Sahil writes, “beginning in late adolescence and continuing throughout adulthood.”
How come?
Researchers believe that “the decline is driven by a lower perception of future time,” he explains, “meaning that as we age, we see less value in acting on curiosity, as it will mainly benefit us in a future time window that is quickly closing.”
It begins in our twenties and thirties when we no longer make time for our interests or hobbies outside of our work.
In our forties and fifties, we may stop trying to make sense of the world and say, “That’s just the way it is.”
In our sixties and seventies, we may stop learning new things because we don’t see the future benefit.
2: But being curious is a choice. We can choose to be curious at any age.
“When life pulls us toward the sameness of incurious, static adulthood, we must fight to maintain your wonder for the universe,” Sahil suggests.
One way to reconnect with our curiosity is to do a little mental time travel.
“It gives us perspective—imagine how much our older self would long to be where we are today,” Sahil observes.
Mental time travel is also “a useful tool for creating gratitude,” he writes, “imagine how amazed our younger self would be at what we’ve accomplished.”
What would our inner ten-year-old self think of present-day us?
We’d likely tell the older version to stay curious and have some fun as we get older.
Because “a life without curiosity is a life devoid of the desire to search, explore, and learn, and lacks the texture created by this desire.
“A life without curiosity is an empty life, a life of stasis, a life without wonder,” Sahil writes.
3: Yesterday we profiled Hank Behar, who chose to spend his 90th birthday attending classes at Harvard.
“On his ninety-ninth birthday,” Sahil writes, “one of Hank’s grandsons made a short documentary in which he followed him for a day and asked about his secrets to a long life.”
“His loving, mischievous nature shines through,” Sahil observes.
After finishing his breakfast (decaf coffee, herring, Cheerios with skim milk, blueberries, a banana, two crackers with jam, and exactly ten grapes), Hank is shown sitting in his recliner reading the newspaper.
“I read the paper every day,” he says. “I like to know what’s going on, of course—who, what, when, and where!”
Curiosity, indeed!
At which point, Phyllis, his wife of sixty-plus years, departs with a kiss on his cheek.
Hank looks at the camera and says, “How do you make it to ninety-nine? You marry a good woman.”
More tomorrow!
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Reflection: How can I reignite curiosity each day, choosing exploration and wonder instead of falling into routine and stasis?
Action: Identify one interest or hobby I’ve let fade—then schedule time to engage with it and view it with fresh eyes.
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