My Year of Curiosity
3 January 2024
2024 is My Year of Curiosity!
I’ve never heard of the concept of having a ‘word of the year’ before but this year I’ve come across it in a few places, including on LinkedIn and in Psychologies magazine.
My understanding of it is that instead of new year resolutions (which I don’t set – see my 2023 post) a word of the year allows you to make choices that are aligned with your values, ambitions, and passion. You are then likely to be clearer about what to commit to, to live the life you want.
Inspired by the Psychologies magazine article, I spent some time yesterday reflecting on 2023 and on how I felt as I look ahead. I reflected specifically on events I have coming up and how I feel about them, including what I want more or less of.
With a focus on the words written I whittled my word of the year down to ‘curiosity’.
With curiosity I will gently explore, learn, and understand the experiences and opportunities I have.
This is perfectly aligned with who I am for several reasons including:
- Curiosity is a huge part of mindfulness. In fact, my definition of mindfulness is paying attention to the present moment with curiosity and compassion, and without judgment.
- When we are curious about something, especially something that’s challenging, we move from bracing against it to approaching it gently, helping us to understand what’s going on for us. I teach more about this on the mindfulness course.
- As a recovering perfectionist, having a focus on curiosity, on exploring and learning, takes the pressure off needing everything to be perfect. That’s not the point. The point is to notice what’s here and to learn and understand.
- It will help me to bring more play and creativity into my life, something I started working on in 2023 and will carry on in 2024.
- Being curious helped me to make some big decisions in 2023, including leaving a senior finance role and focusing more on mindfulness teaching in various ways. 2024 brings with it a new job which I’m starting soon, and more opportunities for mindfulness teaching. I can’t do either without curiosity, without exploring, learning, and understanding.
So, in 2024, I will bring in some gentle curiosity and check-in and ask myself “what’s here in this experience?” and “what am I learning from it?” If I’m making a decision I will ask “will this give me an opportunity to explore something new?” and “will I learn something from it?”.
This will help me to live the life I want this year.
