Follow Your Tiny Curiosities
I recently spent €3450 on a six-month course to become a hypnotherapist. It’s by far the biggest (post-college) investment I’ve ever made in myself. I’m sure some people might call me crazy for spending that amount on something so seemingly random. To be frank, I called myself a little crazy.
I have never even been hypnotized professionally, nor have I personally had any traumas, fears, allergies, or limiting beliefs resolved through hypnotherapy. The only experience I have with hypnotherapy is a few times of attempted self-hypnosis, like the time I hypnotized myself in the office bathroom. But I’ve read dozens, if not hundreds of stories about people who have been catapulted into fantastic new heights as a result of a single hypnotherapy session. These stories sparked a tiny fire of curiosity. And that curiosity was enough to take the leap of faith.
Burning Passion Starts With A Spark
We often seem to think that you need a big burning passion for something that sets your soul on fire in order to feel fulfilled and give it your all. Well, I’m here to break to you that that’s simply not the truth, or at least not the whole truth. Yes, fulfillment is often the result of pursued passion. But trust me, you won’t find a burning passion laying under a rock. You cultivate it by pursuing curiosities, however tiny they may be.
I had that typical ‘’Oh my god what am I even doing’’ stupid-grinning moment as I filled in my credit details on the training’s checkout page. It felt extremely alien, scary and exciting at the same time, which was my cue for making the purchase. If it didn’t feel alien to me, it wouldn’t have been something that challenges me to grow into new fields and areas.
You never know what ‘’your thing’’ might be unless you try the thing.
It’s really hard to put the feeling into words, but it kind of felt like hypnotherapy was not something that I could possibly be doing. Other people who had experience in this field did this kind of thing — not some 22-year-old with a business degree. I realize how grossly illogical that is. ‘’Only people who are into hypnotherapy can do a hypnotherapy training course’’ implies that anyone who does anything ever starts off doing that thing straight out of the womb.
Here’s the thing: you never know what ‘’your thing’’ might be unless you try the thing. If you feel a hint of curiosity nudging you towards bird watching, go do it. If you feel curious about pottery baking, do it. If you feel curious about filmmaking, however tiny that curiosity spark might be, go do it.
It’s often not even about the curiosity itself. It’s about the momentum you build following that curiosity. Bird watching, pottery baking, or filmmaking might not be the thing you stick with for life. But if you make a habit out of pursuing those tiny curiosities, you’ll have a much higher chance of finding that passion or purpose than if you sit around ignoring cues from within, waiting for passion to fall into your lap.
Do Your Excuses Make Sense?
You don’t need me to tell you this but to make my point: we live in the most information-abundant times to have ever existed. It’s nearly incomprehensible for our brains how much of a privilege this is compared to earlier generations. The modern form of humans has been around for around 200,000 years. If you think about the fact that the internet was invented in 1983, that means we are the lucky 0,02% that has all this information at our fingertips. If you start counting the years only including civilization as we know it (which has been around for about 6,000 years) — you know, just for fun — we are still only 0,7% of modern mankind to have that flood of information at our feet.
I’m only pointing this out to remind you of how easy it is for us to follow literally any curiosity. Rock climbing, spirituality, writing, larping, organizing, beer brewing, astrology, science, games, language, fashion, cooking, you name it. The spark is all just a Google search away.
That brings me to my point:
What excuse are you using for not pursuing that curiosity you feel towards something? Is it costs? Time? Or are you telling yourself that thing is not for ‘’people like you’’?
Let me debunk those for you just in case it is one of those excuses.
- Costs: information to start off is enough to pursue a curiosity spark and see if it ignites a bigger fire within you. That’s all free as long as you have an internet connection.
- Time: Are you spending more than 20 minutes per day on Instagram? Then you have more than enough time to pursue your curiosity spark. It’s all about prioritizations. Remember that curiosity sparks only require baby steps to test the waters — it’s not a full course you’re committing to.
- Telling yourself that thing is not for ‘’people like you ’’: I get it. I had the same instinct with the hypnotherapy course, but there’s one crucial thing to keep in mind. That voice whispering critique in your ear? That’s your brain or your analytical mind, more famously known as your ego. Your ego is an asshole to you sometimes, but it’s nothing personal — everyone’s ego gets like that. Here’s why: your ego hates change. And you know what requires change? Yup, doing anything that’s new to you, and that pushes you to grow as a person. So when you’ve discovered that you might be into skateboarding while you’ve never tried it before, your ego goes ‘’Uhm, no thank you’’ and tries to steer you away from that thing that would require change, usually using phrases like ‘’you’re not really the type of person that goes skateboarding’’.
Take Off The Pressure
Since I’ve become aware of my own thought patterns around this area, what I notice in a lot of people is that they build up simple curiosities in their heads so much that they expect themselves to either go all in or just don’t bother at all. All the possibilities at our fingertips could easily trigger a wave of overstimulation or pressure to do it all.
We all know the overused phrase ‘’Go hard or go home’’ and in some contexts, it’s perfectly sensible. In the context of trying out new things? Not even in the slightest.
You’re not married to any new hobby or interest you pick up. If you give it a few hours of your attention and then decide that it’s not what you expected, just drop it if that’s what you feel like.
The same goes for the opposite situation. If you’ve already invested a significant amount of time into starting up a project or pursuing your newly found curiosity, you might find it hard to give it up, even if you know it’s not the right thing for you. You’ll tell yourself you’ve already ‘’come all this way’’ and you ‘’might as well just stick with it.’’
But is that a sensible reason to keep pouring your time and energy into it? No.
Let’s say you’ve completely burnt a lasagne top to bottom, would you still serve it to your guests because you ‘’already spent all that time on it’’? No. Burnt lasagnas are chucked out the window. So are burnt-out curiosity sparks.
You Won’t Know Unless You Try
The hypnotherapy course is turning out to be a shot in the bullseye so far. I’ve had the first two days of training and I’m loving it so far. And to think I almost didn’t take that chance!
I wouldn’t have found this new interest if I didn’t allow myself to try things without pressure. If you go into your search for your next great passion with the mindset that all new things you try need to set your soul on fire and anything less is unacceptable, you’re putting way too much pressure on yourself. Remember that living life, exploring new areas, and learning new things is supposed to be fun.
Not everything you try will become your passion. But chances are you won’t find that passion unless you just go out and try stuff.
“If you can let go of passion and follow your curiosity, your curiosity just might lead you to your passion.” — Elizabeth Gilbert
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