Here’s a harsh truth: you’re probably leaving success on the table by letting an innate superpower go to waste.
It’s the same superpower Albert Einstein credited for his breakthroughs, and you have it, too. Here’s how he put it (in a rare instance of a real and verifiable Einstein quote):
“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”
If we take him at his word, curiosity was the force that gave us General Relativity and fundamentally altered our understanding of reality.
But I don’t think Einstein is the greatest role model for practicing curiosity. No, that honor goes to the five-year-old.
I can confirm from first-hand experience with my four kids: five-year-olds ask “WHY?” approximately 11,000 times a day.
But adulthood has a way of muting that instinct. School rewards knowing the right answers, not questioning or exploring. Work rewards efficiency. Life rewards constant motion.
Slowly, without noticing, we trade curiosity for competence and wonder for routine.
Yet curiosity is the foundation of adaptability, creativity, and original thinking.
It’s a competitive advantage, especially for human beings over AI. Machines can analyze and optimize, but they can’t feel that spark of interest that pulls you toward a question simply because it might lead somewhere new.
Therefore, strengthening your curiosity may be one of the most important things you do in 2026.
Here are a few simple ways to reignite it:
1. Make Questioning Everything a Habit
“Why are we doing it this way?”
“What assumption is hiding underneath this decision?”
“What would happen if we tried the opposite?”
Curiosity often starts with refusing to accept “that’s just how it is.”
2. Don’t Scroll → Rabbit Hole
Most of us have a default leisure habit: scrolling social feeds, flipping channels, letting the next episode auto-play.
Instead of trying to ban those activities, repurpose them.
Notice what sparks even a tiny bit of curiosity and chase it.
If you’re watching a movie, look up how it was made or how the script got sold.
If you see a wild claim on social media, try to verify or debunk it.
If you’re listening to a favorite musician, read about where they got their start and then find a lesser-known artist from the same scene.
The goal isn’t productivity; it’s to turn passive consumption into active exploration.
3. Capture One “What If” a Day
“What if we onboarded customers in half the time?”
“What if I totally overhauled my wardrobe?”
“What if I was forced to try one new thing in 2026 that made me really uncomfortable? What would that be?”
Keep these in a notebook or notes app.
Review them at the end of the week and circle the ones that still light you up.
Those are your seeds for projects, experiments, and conversations.
And since we began with physics, let’s end there too:
“Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious, and however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.” – Stephen Hawking
To your creative success…
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