Some of you may have noticed our new message parked with our logo, "Stay curious, friends.". Some of you have been curious enough to ask “Why stay curious?”. And then some of you may be thinking, "this must be their crazy social media guy back at it again". And you would be RIGHT!
Well, this message is more than just a fun marketing moniker, (which, it IS. I mean, come ON!). But it is also a call out of easy and mindless passivity - into thoughtful and intentional action. At its core, it summarizes what the word “discovery” is all about.
Think about it. The greatest discoveries of the last couple hundred years, let alone through all recorded history, were made by people who stayed curious enough to keep 'pushing the envelope' of "what is" into the future of "what could be" - and their tenacity ... has now, and always, “made history”.
Whether it is the discovery of new lands, new ideas, new freedoms, new inventions, or new capacities of the human mind, body, or spirit - just consider the immediate names that come to mind.
Jesus the Christ. He only split time in half, right!?! Christopher Columbus. Abraham Lincoln. Sojourner Truth. (just Google her) Thomas Edison. Albert Einstein. The Wright brothers. Henry Ford. Amelia Earhart. Gandhi. Rosa Parks. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Neil Armstrong. Mother Theresa. Maya Angelou. Joe Montana. Michael Jordan. Bill Gates. Steve Jobs. The list could go on. And does.
Hard stop.
Think with me for a moment…what is it exactly, that all these people have in common?
They - refused to be satisfied with things as they are. They refused to give up. They possessed a relentless curiosity - not just of what is, but of "what could be". They remained - they "stayed…curious" about what a better future could look like.
In a time where many have given up on better jobs, families, futures, (fill in the blank) … what if we refused to … wait, no, change up ... what if we STAYED curious about what it will take to build better lives? Better families? Better futures? What if we refused to give up on exploring ... on this very brave and beautiful act of discovery?
Now, some of you naysayers out there may be thinking "I thought curiosity killed the cat!" And you would be right again my friends! But - to their credit - they're CATS! And well, those darn friggin' cute kitties (awwwwwwww), they get nine lives anyway. Come to think of it, most people who stay curious, somehow manage to fit pretty darn close to nine lives into their one lifetime after all. Not a bad deal.
Some additional reasons to stay curious?
You'l live longer.
In a 1996 study published in Psychology and Aging, more than 1,000 older adults aged 60 to 86 were carefully observed over a five-year period, and researchers found that those who were rated as being more curious (in a perpetual state of discovery) at the beginning of the study were more likely to be alive at its conclusion, even after taking into account age, whether they smoked, the presence of cancer or cardiovascular disease, and so on. Huh. That's curious.
Additionally, maintaining your curiosity has proven to increase your intelligence, build longer lasting relationships, and develop deeper meaning and purpose.
Well, for those of you who have been around Discovery for some time now, we like to live out what I will call 'a few critical codes' (not perfectly mind you), here at Discovery. And we’re still at it. Still…working them out.
With the introduction of this newly crafted message of “curiosity”, you can rest assured - those codes or ways of doing life (Discover Your Story, Experience Jesus, and Live to Rescue), have NOT changed. Quite the contrary. They have only become MORE deeply entrenched.
To borrow the words of our old SNL friends Hans and Franz, “Believe me nowww, listen to me latuhhh” (again, Google if you need to)…
"Believe me now", because, these ways of living are profoundly intertwined with a message of discovery and curiosity, and "hear me later" because, well, you have just read Part 1 of a 5 part blog series that began with this post, and ends in 4 more.
Have a great weekend everybody ... and STAY CURIOUS!