How to Trust that Following Your Curiosity is Productive
For the last 7 days I’ve been following one rule…
There are no rules.
I decided to remove structure from my week, and follow my natural curiosity and inspiration to see where it took me.
It has been one of my favourite working weeks to date (I know! High praise!) and got me thinking about why it’s so hard for us to trust that following our inspiration is productive and worthwhile.
So today I’m sharing what led me to this point, what makes it hard to do, and what the results of this little experiment were; along with some ways you can bring a little more inspiration and curiosity into your working day (and life!).
What we’ll cover:
What led me to follow my inspiration
Curiosity or inspiration?
Why it’s so hard to trust our curiosity
Where my curiosity led me
Metrics I achieved
Beyond metrics (arguably the most productive outcomes of all!)
How you can get curious in 15 minutes a day
What led me to follow my curiosity
In an effort to be more ‘successful’ this year I made a change to my business plan. I created a strategy based on what I thought made sense, listed out all the ways I could market to people what I do, and wrote a list of very specific tasks I needed to do that week to get me closer to my goal.
And then… I had a sudden and very disconcerting crash in motivation.
I spent most of the week watching Netflix and feeling incredibly bad about myself. I was honestly thinking something had gone weirdly wrong. Was I getting an illness and it had impacted my motivation? Was I at the beginning of a sudden depressive episode?
If you haven’t met him yet, here’s my inner critic - Mr Gruff
It made no sense to me, given that I’d felt great whilst I was planning it all out.
The inner critic voice in my head got very noisy…
“You know exactly what you need to do. Get off your arse and do it. Why are you finding this so hard?”
“You’re never gonna make this work if you can’t do basic, 20 minute tasks on your to-do list.”
“If you want success, you need to be more resilient in riding out these hard parts. You can’t just do what you want all of the time.”
Talking to my Coach about it (shout out to Feroshia) I started to question, had I completely lost sight of what came naturally to me? Was I making the most of my strengths? Was I out of alignment with my true passion?
I felt particularly uncomfortable with that last question. True passion? Out of alignment? What is this woo-woo-ery? “There’s no space for these things when you’re making a living.” Says Mr Gruff
I quickly realised I was being a hypocrite. I’ve been self-employed for almost two years, passionate about helping people to bring the best parts of who they are to their careers and relationships. And yet I wouldn’t let myself do the same.
I woke up the next day with a completely renewed sense of vigour! I decided to abolish structure, planning ahead and to-do lists, and see where my inspiration took me.
Curiosity or inspiration?
I’ll be honest, it was sitting down to write this that made me realise I’d been using curiosity and inspiration as interchangeable words. They are different things but I think they’re importantly linked.
Curiosity “a strong desire to know or learn something.”
Inspiration “the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.”
I am a very curious person, and being curious inspires me to do something. Similarly the more inspired I am, the more curious I get. The link between curiosity and motivation is pretty well established, and arguably what I’m talking about here is using curiosity to feel inspired and be motivated.
Whichever way you slice it (let’s not get too bogged down in the linguistics). I had decided to approach the week with a mentality and a feeling.
The mentality? There are no rules, do whatever the heck you feel like, when you feel like it.
The feeling? Being in flow. You know it…
Why is it so hard to trust our curiosity?
It’s uncertain and feels unsafe
“Choosing to be curious is choosing to be vulnerable because it requires us to surrender to uncertainty. ”
The wonderous joy of being curious and following your inspiration is that there is no plan. You don’t know where it’s going. Does the thought of it make you shudder?
It’s normal if it does. Our reptilian brains like routine, structure and the familiar. Our survival instincts have our safety in mind, and there’s safety in certainty.
But you know what certainty also does? It closes off the possibility of new perspectives, fresh ideas, feeling inspired, connecting with others, and trying new things.
Additional side note: just because your reptilian brain stem wants to keep you safe and structured, doesn’t mean that’s when you do your best or most productive work.
Most productivity advice reinforces the need for structure
“We are not robots that can be programmed to work only on a set schedule.”
In my early to mid 20s I drowned myself in productivity advice. How could I become a more operationally effective human? How could I build a business on top of a full time job by optimising every moment of my day?
I calendar blocked. I got up early. I filled my commute with business podcasts. I intensely structured my time.
And you know what happened? I burned out. Why? Because at no point did I recognise that emotion and energy levels had a role to play in being productive. The way I saw myself (and the productivity books reinforced) was as a robot programmed to follow rules and get stuff done. This advice is completely at odds with following our feelings, our natural curiosity and surrendering to uncertainty.
There’s no direct measure of monetary value
When did you last sit in a company meeting and hear them announce that their Q3 results would be metrics of curiosity.
“Don’t worry Bob, we’re not bothered about sales this month, I wanna know how curious everyone is feeling!”
The link between the amount of meetings had, or website visits, or time spent on a project are easier things to measure, and therefore easier to attribute to sales results.
Curiosity or following your inspiration? It’s harder to show what direct value that has (and therefore trust that it is having a value), and so our behaviour isn’t incentivised towards curiosity.
Curiosity doesn’t pass tests
Excuse me whilst I get on my soap box for a moment but I have many bones to pick with our education system. Curiosity doesn’t pass tests. I know this because I worked as an Infant School teacher for two years.
“We are born to be curious, and our education system squeezes that out of us early in favour of league tables.”
You know what’s soul destroying for someone who values play as an important discovery and learning tool (for adults and children)? Having to stop children from learning through play, make them sit at tables and pressurise them to pass tests at the age of 6 years old.
I also know curiosity doesn’t pass tests because as an Achiever and A student, I am really good at passing tests. Growing up with that as a frame of reference for my success, it’s taken me until almost 30 years old to realise that I am a curious and creative person.
We are born to be curious. It’s how we learn about ourselves and the world around us. It is completely in our nature.
But the education system squeezes it out of us early. I will admit that’s a dramatically bleak view, there are some schools, teachers, parents, positively influencing a curious and playful way of learning. But my point is, that most of us don’t exist in a world where education and work as nurtured our curiosity.
But fear not! Just because it’s hard to trust our curiosity, doesn’t mean it’s impossible! In fact, learning to trust it is one of the most liberating feelings of all!
Where my curiosity led me
I’m gonna start with some of the measurable achievements, because I understand that feeling you have. The one that, despite your efforts to let go and trust your curiosity, just needs a little pat of reassurance that you’re still getting stuff done (in a traditional productivity sense).
The 'metric’ type achievements
My Linkedin profile views increased by 317% compared to the previous week and so far this week are up by another 38%
8 people signed up to my F U to Structure 7 day email challenge, with an average open rate of 82%
5 people signed up to my Freedom Friday series
I wrote 7,000 words of a book that wasn’t even a concept in my mind until 2 days into following my curiosity.
Productivity beyond the metrics (and arguably more important)
I felt flippin’ amaaaaazing! I didn’t need to fight myself to be productive. I was so motivated I lost track of time working (ironically, I was 10 minutes late for a session with my coach because I was so in flow writing this article ha!)
I connected with people, both meeting new people and talking to those I’d not seen for a while. Connection is really important to me as a person, and in my work, but I’d been struggling with this when it was a structured ‘find people to connect with in the day’ type goal. When following my curiosity it happened naturally.
My inner critic was so much quieter. Rather than “what will people think”. I was fighting just one comment “are you sure this is a valuable use of our time?” but this was easier to manage because I’d given myself permission at the start of the week to do things this way. It’s so much harder for your inner critic to have a voice when you’re in flow, doing something that truly interests you.
I had a gazillion ideas. There aren’t unlimited hours in the day so I couldn’t act on everything I thought of, but I had so many ideas that I’ve recorded to work on later. Or trusted that they’re knocking around in my brain for another time.
I worked out my next business move. I spent January agonising over what workshop I wanted to run next and how best to share it with people - I felt so incredibly stuck trying to work it out. Following my curiosity allowed me to explore, connect with others and figure out my direction.
I started writing a book and it wasn’t hard. I’ve always wanted to write a book but it’s never been a ‘now’ thing. It’s a ‘some time in the future when I have more valuable things to say’ thing. Letting myself be inspired made it pour out of me naturally, and also served as a catalyst for some other decisions in my business. Don’t get me wrong, I know the road to finishing it and publishing it isn’t an easy one. But I was shocked how the idea, and decision to pursue it came so easily when I followed my inspiration.
How to get curious in 15 mins a day
Depending on where you’re at in life right now, the amount of time and mental space you have to follow your curiosity maybe limited. Doing it doesn’t mean quitting your job, running into the hills and denouncing all of your responsibilities.
You can start following your curiosity in just 15 minutes a day, by learning how to let go of a little bit of structure. The week that I tried this, I shared an email each day with 8 other brave souls who joined me on the journey.
Join me in saying a big F U to structure. Each day for 7 days I’ll email you a small activity that will help you to follow your curiosity….
(warning you will see me dance, and overhear a conversation with my inner critic who I call Mr Gruff)
I help late diagnosed ADHD folk make career and life decisions they trust. ICF Certified Coach, Youtuber & Writer.