Imagine you are gifted tickets to the symphony, and the piece of music being performed is the John Williams epic opening theme from Star Wars. You can feel it already! The exhilaration and excitement that that piece of music brings forth has you PUMPED. You can see in your mind’s eye the opening title crawl describing the conflict floating into outer space. Iconic.
But when you arrive and the curtains part, you notice something odd. It’s all violins. The brass section is missing. And so are the drums, the timpani, the bass. Somehow, the power of the music just doesn’t hit the same. The melody is familiar, but it lacks impact.
Or how about this? Imagine you order a piece of pumpkin pie. Upon taking the first bite, you realize it’s just the pumpkin and sugar. No cinnamon, no nutmeg, no – well-- no nothing. It’s bland and you can hardly stomach it.
There is a reason the phrase “variety is the spice of life” came into popular usage. When everything is the same, we get bored.
So how does this relate to the work we are trying to do with Get Curious?
We believe that variety can actually make things stronger.
What does that mean?
It means if you have a leadership team in your company that is all math geniuses, but no one has quality language skills, your impact as a business will be compromised. Lopsided. It means that if you grow marigolds next to your tomatoes, you are less likely to face an aphid infestation. Each plant has it’s own characteristics and strengths, and nature has found a way for them to help each other out. It means that the Star Wars theme without the whole orchestra just isn’t the same. We want and need diversity of skills, of characteristics, and even of sound.
So now that we are remembering how much variety brings enjoyment to our lives, and strength to our businesses and our gardens, how can we apply those ideas to the people that we encounter? Shouldn’t we be wishing for variety in terms of the people that populate our lives?
The funny thing is, most of the time we seek sameness in terms of people. We feel most comfortable with whatever is familiar.
The problem is, we were built to make assumptions. So often we assume we know a person’s story without truly having any information. On top of that, most of us have been taught about “stranger danger”, and also fear change. Encountering anything that is unfamiliar, and especially people that are unfamiliar, can be intimidating and even scary sometimes.
We want to confront these fears of the unknown and try to give ourselves tools to help us determine when our instincts are real and justified, and also to unpack the idea that sometimes our “gut feelings” aren’t true.
That is what this work is about. Remembering that everyone has a story, and being curious enough to learn about it.
What sparked your curiosity today?