The Mindset Struggle: Curious Against the Confident

I remember childhood. I did not have dreams of becoming someone - nor aspirations of being an astronaut or anything less challenging. The only thing I specifically remember was that I wanted immensely to learn about the world. Naturally, it was not possible at the time; my mind limited by its status quo, and the education passed onto me. Yes, indeed, education, because while those few sparkling personalities broadened our horizons, those more abundant weak-minded circumscribed it.

It was my "ill-stubbornness" that have kept me confident that I could do anything I set my mind on and nothing has ever made me give up trying. Pretty soon, I have understood that there are no limits to what we can learn, and equally, there are no limits to knowledge acquisition. Such realisation led to two contradicting outcomes - first, the certainty that each day I was bound to know a little more. Second, the creeping truth that what there is to know considerably outweighs my current knowledge and will continue to do so. But, then, I had a curious mind, and that was both a gift and a curse.

The enormous contrast between curious mindset against the unshakably confident one rests in the above. It is, in fact, the awareness of our limitations. The bearer of the former often feels angry or insufficient in the presence of the bearer of the latter. Angry, because of the awareness that overrated confidence can lead to unpredictable flaws and errors (something that the curious minds, in contrast to the unshakably confident ones, are aware of). Insufficient, because of the awareness of its-own-limits, which makes the bearers of the curious minds feel inferior.

But, then, like in many other matters, our aptitude is often our downfall, and we have to learn to live with the positive and the adverse outcomes of our personalities and mental capacities. Certainly belonging to the "curious-minded" can make you feel you would not want to have it any other way, but then, it might apply vice versa. The only difference is that while the curious minds push their limitations and expand their possibilities, those who think they know usually fail to do so.

The bottom line for all of us is to know and respect ourselves, being aware of our mind-workings so that we can make our minds our allies, not enemies. The road to self-knowledge bears many fruits and can be easily self-checked in many personal and unique ways. For that particular reason, it needs to be necessarily the first knowledge we seek to acquire.