To see the world through the eyes of a child again, everything new, the smallest things eliciting the greatest fascination!

In many a person’s life comes a point when they look at their life, look at the world, and wonder why it all feels so humdrum. Wouldn’t it be nice to go back to a state of childlike wonder, to be able to look at the world anew and feel the sense of wonder that children obviously have?

Curiosity is highly important for us, especially if we want to treat our life as a journey of exploration – which is a helpful approach in many ways. In that, there is a way to curiosity that is actually better than a child’s.

If you have children, if you have watched parents,  you will  have noticed the problem with children’s wonder: It is fascinating how much they stop to look at the smallest things – until you have to get somewhere and it aggravates you.

Children’s amazement about the world is great, and it comes easier, of course – but it is merely a flicker compared to the bonfire of curiosity that adults can kindle in themselves, if they prepare it right.

Children’s Ease

Let’s put the obvious problem aside, first: Of course, children have it easier to stop and wonder. They don’t have to worry about meals to put on the table, money to pay the bills, the next deadline, and all that. There’s a reason adult life is, well, adult life.

As an adult, you will be burdened by routine.

You’ll have to make the time for wonder, for learning, for anything and everything. And there’s a lot that you have to make time for and even more that will just preoccupy your time because it’s necessary.

Sad though it may be, having an income and putting food on the table comes before opportunities for awe.

Childlike Wonder vs. Adult Wonder

You will also know a lot already, and this, too, diminishes our sense of wonder.

Looking closer and seeking to learn more about (your) life and the world, the way I’m sure you want to if you’ve come here, we need to realize this about childlike wonder: It is easier for a child to be curious about things, to stay rooted to a spot and play with stones or grass or a stick or whatever.

Children’s wonder, however, has a simple foundation: It has little foundation. Children see the world anew because they haven’t seen much of the world yet. It is all new to them.

This makes it easier to be curious, especially given the time to stop and wonder. It also, however, makes for much less learning and understanding.

Haven’t I learned enough?, you may now, uhm, wonder. School was probably hard enough to get through – and if it was easy for you, you’re probably still happy you’re past that.

It will get more challenging to learn new things, the more you learn and the deeper you want to get into the learning (and perhaps, the older you get). There’s a reason we stop wondering how a car works when all we really need to concern ourselves with is that it is in a working state and gets us where we need to go.

Still, when we take everything in life like that, it is not life that is boring and humdrum, that lacks a sense of wonder, it is us.

When we take time to ask ourselves questions about the things we see and do, look closer at them to see what fascinates us and what we don’t know much about and/or learn more about something and learn to see things anew that way, we re-develop wonder.

It is on a foundation of less that is new for us, but also more that we already know. Therefore, we can (and need to) go deeper in our learning and the explanations. That’s something that life is about, though.

Why Be Curious, Why Learn, Though?

The smoldering embers of awe lie within us, they just need to get the right breath. And you should make time for wonder.

Curiosity enhances creativity, makes learning easier – and being curious and learning more is just simply a better way to be in the world.

Sure, you can get through your daily life without learning anything new, without even seeing how much you could still learn. In many aspects of daily life, routines are necessary and make things easier.

Doing everything just by routine, however, is a boring way to live.

Do you really want to be one of those (all too many) people who only satisfy a curiosity about stars through gossip, who only “learn” with the next ding of a notification for another inane social media update?

Do you just want to see the world through the one lens you’ve learned to see it through, never even finding what you still ignore, where you just stop learning because you never learned to go farther?

Some Ideas

What can you do?

• Become an explorer of the everyday: Examine the dewdrops clinging to a spiderweb with the intensity of a scientist discovering a new galaxy. Notice the way afternoon light transforms an ordinary room into something out of a painting.
  
  Wonder hides in plain sight.
  
• Question like a relentless detective – or a small child: Why is the sky blue? What makes a song a hit? How do trees communicate?
  
  Every answer unfurls a new world of fascinating details.
  
• Taste the joy of learning: Sign up for a dance class, learn a new language, or devour documentaries about ancient civilizations.
  
  Rediscover the thrill of filling your mind with new concepts and connections.
   

Adult awe isn’t a naive surrender to enchantment. It’s deeper, forged by experience. It fuels our creativity, reminds us of our place in this magnificent cosmos, and makes the journey of life infinitely more captivating. It’s time to fan the flames of grown-up wonder and see the world ablaze with possibility.

Let’s not be boring; let’s become explorers of this fantastic world, of the opportunities for discovery it holds – and if that’s “only” about your own body and your health, about foods you enjoy and that do you good, about landscapes you pass through: Go!