Why Seeing the World Like A Child Will Change Your Life
Here’s Why Children Learn Things So Fast, and How You Can Too!
I want you to look at these questions —
- What makes a face beautiful?
- Why is the sky blue?
- What effect does light have on the sky?
- Why do people yawn?
They’re random, aren’t they?
These were some of the questions found in Leonardo Da Vinci’s Journal.
He would ask a lot of random questions like a four-year-old. He was just passionately curious.
Think like A Child
I’ve begun to notice the greatest scientists know how to keep this child-like curiosity alive.
“I am always looking, like a child, for wonders I know I am going to find. Maybe not every time, but every once in a while.”-Richard Feynman
“It took me four years to paint like Rembrandt, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”- Picasso
Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. — Pablo Picasso
Gravity is something that seemed so obvious that no one thought about it.
Until some guy called Newton did. He probably would've had to ask a lot of questions like a four-year-old to come to think about gravity, something which seems so obvious. This ended up changing science forever.
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
Children learn faster than adults. They just figure out how to use mobile phones and tech so easily.
But I don’t think it's because they're smarter, I think it's just their mindset.
They have a blank slate. They don’t have preconceived notions of technology so they just explore and figure things out.
One of the biggest things holding me back is that I’ve stopped thinking like I child.
I feel like I know something and so I don’t really learn. I’m afraid of looking stupid. I don’t look at things from a fresh mindset. My ego comes to me and I think I already know more than I do.
This is why I think I need to be like a child, and I think we all need to.
When I say we all should think like children. Here’s what I really mean:
- Be curious, ready to explore, and ready to learn.
- Accept that you don’t know
- We need to keep our imagination alive.
Curiosity
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. — Einstein
Leonardo da Vinci wasn’t just a master painter; he was a scientist, inventor, and anatomist, driven by an insatiable curiosity about the world around him.
“Curiosity about life in all its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.”
Learning and exploring are inherently fun things.
A mindset shift I just thought about while writing this article is to look at any piece of information I see as a door to explore something.
For example, if I come up with a name of a person for example Richard Feynman. I’ll go to Google everything about him. Ask a bunch of questions like who was he? What were his books? What were his works etc etc. (It’s a habit I want to implement)
Accept that you don’t know
Socrates famously said, “I know that I know nothing”. This is why he constantly asked questions to try and truly understand and learn about things. It’s even called the Socratic method now.
Four-Year-Olds ask A lot of questions. As we go older society makes it look bad for asking questions.
Our ego comes in the way of asking stupid questions. What I feel is the questioning shouldn’t stop just that the quality of questioning should improve.
The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life. — Confucius
Embrace the “not knowing”: It’s the first step to true learning. It will lead you to be more curious, and receptive to information and it will even create space for stupid questions.
Imagination
“Everything you can imagine is real.”
I found a piece I really liked, so I just pasted it here:
Imagine a child encountering a puddle for the first time. It’s not just dirty water; it’s an ocean, a mirror to the sky, a canvas for imagination. That’s the essence of a beginner’s mind — approaching everything with curiosity, openness, and a lack of preconceived notions.
(The original site I got it from)
Shoshin- The Beginners Mindset
All of this reminds me of Shoshin, something which comes from Zen Buddhism.
It means having a beginner's mind.
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.” — Phil Jackson( Michael Jordan’s coach)
The core idea in Soshin is to see things with fresh eyes, even if you’re experienced, be ready to learn more about what you think you already know, and even focus on the basics.
We all need to embrace the embarrassment of being a beginner. Being ready to look stupid. To make a ton of mistakes. I think that’s what I’m missing I’m afraid of failure and looking stupid.
Success gives you opportunities to fail because ego gets to you and you become complacent.
Shoshin also reminds me of Gary Vee’s Enjoy the Dirt advice which I read about here.
I think this article to an extent can be summarized by the line “Stay foolish, stay hungry.” — Steve Jobs
