Linus Pauling — Curiosity

Are you curious about the world around you? Are you searching for new information and ideas? Are you asking questions and looking for answers? Are you challenging the status quo? Do you doubt what people accept at truth? 

Do you question the world around you? Do you ask: why? how? when? where? Do you challenge the assumptions of others? Do you challenge your own assumptions? Do you challenge your beliefs? Do you question your habits? Or do you simply accept what was taught you? 

Do you accept without question the statements of experts? Do you question what you read in the newspaper or hear on television? Are you willing to think differently than those around you? Do you hang out with people who think like you do? Or do you surround yourself with people who think differently than you?

Creative leaders seek out new ideas and new ways of seeing the world. We need and want answers to our questions. Part of our thrill in life is learning something new — figuring out something we didn't know.

Creative leaders need a strong sense of curiosity about the world they inhabit. They should not satisfied with the pat answers of the past. The challenge is in finding new answers to some of the age old questions.

Franklin D. Roosevelt — The Thrill of Creativity

Creativity is not limited to writers, artists and musicians.  Anyone can be creative if they open themselves up and listen to the ideas inside.  Who has not had a better idea about something?  There are creative business people who have new ideas about how to do something better.  There are creative doctors who develop better ways to treat patients.  My dentist has developed 12 products that he has sold on the market. Unfortunately, some people bury their creativity deep inside.  They even announce loudly to those around them: "I don't have a creative bone in my body."  We all have the potential to be creative if we allow ourselves the opportunity.

Creativity is one of the most thrilling acts that we as humans can participate in.  If you have ever experienced the excitement of chasing a new idea or exploring a new way of seeing the world you will understand what Roosevelt is saying.  Some people might say that Roosevelt was not creative.  He did not produce any great works of art.  His creativity lay in his ability to change the way he and others saw the world.  The ideas that rose to the surface during his Presidency dramatically changed life in the United States and around the world.  People today are still trying to understand the impact of the changes Roosevelt created in our society and our politics.  Roosevelt was a creative leader.

What are you doing to cultivate creativity in your life?  Give yourself the freedom to look at the world in new ways.  See the world in ways that others don't.  Don't accept things as they are.  Question why?  Creativity is not about technique.  It is about seeing the world in new ways.  

Henry Miller

I have found that one of the benefits of traveling is the opportunity to see the world through new eyes — to realize that there is more to life then the day-to-day petty challenges that I face.  Too often we become so involved in chopping down a tree that we fail to see that the world is filled with more trees than those on the tiny acre which we occupy.



Wandering the streets of new towns and cities and encountering new people changes our perspective of the world and our place within it.  We often realize that our problems and challenges are small and insignificant compared to those of other people.  We learn to see the world differently and through new eyes.



I have learned that taking the time to step away from my day-to-day challenges reduces the stress in my life and clears my head of the issues and problems that normally occupy center stage.



I discovered this my sophomore year in college.  My freshman year had been filled with concern about the problems and challenges facing the American people.  War was killing the youth of our nation as well as the men, women and children of Vietnam.  Riots were burning the hearts of our cities.  Martin Luther King, Jr and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated.  Young people were beaten in the streets of Chicago during the Democratic convention.  And I considered dropping out of school.



In September of 1968, I boarded a plane for Kingston, Jamaica with twenty other college students.  We spent 13 weeks immersed in the culture and history of the country as part of a Study-Service term abroad offered by our small church college.  We studied the Rastafarian movement, Spanish and British imperialism, banana plantations and Jamaican literature.  We spent seven weeks in a service project.



We did not read American newspapers or listen to American newscasts.  The problems in America faded slowly away.  The problems Jamaicans faced had less to do with race and more to do with economics.  War was not on the daily news.  Jamaicans were proud of their recent independence from Great Britain and believed they had a bright future.  The pace of life slowed and the stress of being a student in the turbulent sixties in America slowly faded away.  I began to see the world through new eyes.  



When I returned to the United States in December, the election was over and Nixon had won.  America still faced the same problems and challenges that it had when I left.  The world had not grown any better.  But I had changed.  I was still concerned about the issues, but I was calmer and understood that change took time.  I could not change the world, but I could change myself.  By stepping away, I had come to see the world differently.  I had come to see my place in the world with new eyes.

About Henry Miller

Henry Miller was born to German Lutheran parents in New York city in 1891.  He wrote several novels including Tropic of Cancer,  Tropic of Capricorn and Sexus.  He also painted 2,000 watercolors and played the piano.  He was married five times and died in 1980.