I am not sure what I am going to write but yesterday was one of the days where I felt a lack of energy especially in the evening, it was Friday and I was just about to tell my friends that I would not be able to make it to the Bollywood night. Apparently, I am the one who said in first, so I felt a bit strange to say no that time. However, once I went, the energy comes back, the sleep went away and somehow it felt refreshed also. Maybe it's about the interest that I had, I loved spending time with those people, everyone is so cool and wonderful, there are a little quirks and weirdness in everyone but that's what makes all of them complete. So anyways, I felt it is that time where I want to talk about, if you are interested and deeply interested in something the energy comes. You wouldn't need it but it's all there. I want to talk about why it's more important to be someone who's interested, not someone who's interesting. Probably interested in anything and everything in the world that's around you.
What is being interested? By definition itself, being interested is wanting to learn more about something. Whether that's a person, a book, or whether that's a building you want to learn, everything is about being interested. We all find humans who keep talking about themselves, but the question is do you enjoy with them? Probably not, but you enjoy with people who can allow you to talk about yourself and you allow them to talk about themselves. Now being interested does not mean that you never open anything up about yourself, but you do make a comfortable and a safe space for someone else to open up and that's what is more important.
So why is it that important to be interested?
William Moris was an English Textile designer who lived in the 19th century. He was a britisher working in textile at the peak of Industrial Revolution. This quote is taken from him, he says that the true secret of happiness lies in taking genuine interest in all the details of daily life. This goes deeper than we think it does. He is saying genuine interest in all the details of daily life. I mean it can be anything, it can be a genuine interest to watch the sunset, a genuine interest to talk to a person, a genuine interest to watch the birds fly, maybe happiness lies in those little things. It's the not the big achievements where we say when we achieve xyz milestone we will be happy, it's more about being happy where you are right now. You see, happiness is watching a child laugh also and happiness is earning a million dollars also. So yes, be ambitious, but at the same time. Sometimes you can find happiness in the simple chores as well, cooking a meal, cleaning your house or listening to music. You don't need fancy stuff for the most part. Maybe that interest you have in watching tennis or watching your favourite cricket team win. At the end of it all, what William Morris puts out here is that happiness lies in the simple everyday experiences, yes we all want to achieve something big in life but we also want to keep it as simple when it comes to our everyday happiness.
One of my favourite authors, says that interest is one source of passion, and purpose that is the intention to contribute to the well being of others is another. For us to develop real grit, firstly, we must deeply care for our community and people around us. Purpose is all about how we influence lives of others, and it is given that as humans we do want to feel valued, we do want to contribute towards the lives of people around us, and sometimes also to the lives of people who are not around us. So interest in people will lead you to discover more things and once you discover more things, you will be able to solve their problems much more better.
I have more quotes to talk about but why should we be interested in anything in the world?
1. Personality Development: When you are interested in anything and everything around you, you will develop a personality and a broader horizon of things. Imagine you find a person who can talk to you about cricket, football, table tennis or rather a wider variety of things. Now that he/she can talk about so many things, you would certainly find him/her very interesting.
2. Growth and learning: There's nothing stronger than curiosity when it comes to growth and learning. Imagine you want to learn cooking and you find a dish very interesting, rather than saying it is interesting, you should really be interested to get to know how that dish is really made. How that building is really made, how that code is made, everything will make you enjoy life a little more.
3. Connection: When we meet someone new, think about what makes them who they are. Think about them as humans with insecurities. Think about them as humans with stories connected to them. Imagine how fun it would be to know where a person has come from, what a person has been through, what are their most embarrassing moments or anything that's got more of depth. I strongly believe that every human has a story and getting to know that story is so much more important to really and deeply connect to a person.
4. Resilience: The most important life skill of all is resilience. Imagine once you understand the world better, you become more resilient to the small setbacks you face in life. Because you know with the knowledge you possess you would be able to overcome any obstacles that come in the way. So become interested in the world around you to be resilient.
Now the next question is how can we really develop an interest towards the little things in life?
1. Ask questions: Whenever you are alone or with people, ask the why questions, also ask the how questions. How do we make a pizza, or why do we make a pizza, something as simple as this is also a good example. How do engineers make buildings? Why is that we all work so hard to live our lives? Why do women have periods? How do the athletes build stamina? All of these are very random questions, but it's these random questions that increase the breadth of your knowledge. For depth, you need really focused questions.
2. Read books: We live in an age where knowledge is abundant. We can learn from any books, podcasts, or even audio books these days. Because we have so much knowledge at our hands today, it's more important to utilise this opportunity and also reflect on the knowledge we have. It's got immense power. There's a quote that says knowledge is power and it really really is.
3. Engage in diverse experiences: To increase our knowledge we should keep on doing new things, things that are extremely diverse and do things that you have never done before. Plan a trip to city you have never been, learn to play an instrument that's completely alien to you, learn a new language, whatever it is make sure you try to do things that's beyond your own area of expertise. If you go on one path everyday to your office, try a different path.
Anyways now that we have discussed this, we want to really get some quiet time and think about this. Think about situations where you can be interested, rather than interesting, think about places where you can ask the question of how and the why.
Exercise 1: Take a look around you, ask yourself how so and so thing is made. Pick any 10 things and ask yourself how those 10 things are made and find the answers to those.
Exercise 2: Talk to a friend for 10 minutes and ask him/her the story of his/her life. Make sure the other person feels safe to open up.
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