“Our society would benefit, I think — especially right now — from mindsets that are a bit more comfortable with ambiguity and the liminal space that asking great questions take us to.” ~ Natalie Nixon
Creativity strategist Natalie Nixon has a fresh take on productivity and our ideas about time.
She makes the case for leaning into joyful movement, deep thinking and the pause of a “strategic speed bump” to tap into — and cultivate — our creativity and curiosity.
We talk about the marvelous concept of chaordic competency – balancing order and chaos; insights leaders and learners can glean from jazz, dance and swimming; the metacognitive and corporal benefits of regular movement, deep thinking, and restorative pauses; the necessary cycles of growth in cultivating better ideas; and why swimming buddies (literal or metaphoric) are such an effective curiosity practice.
I really encourage people to “find your jam” — that brings you joy, that gets you to move in new and interesting ways where you’re not the smartest person in the room, that allows you to spark that curiosity…because there’s a lot of self-inquiry, as well as clarifying questions that you have to ask of others.
Listen to #295: Cultivating Curiosity: Move, Think, Rest, with Natalie Nixon
Natalie Nixon, PhD., is CEO of Figure 8 Thinking, a “creativity whisperer to the C-Suite” and creator of the WonderRigor Theory of innovation. Her latest book is Move. Think. Rest.: Redefining Productivity & Our Relationship with Time.
With C2BC friend and guest Jeff Wetzler, Natalie co-authored an article for Fast Company that caught my eye: How Smart Leaders Balance Urgency With Curiosity, Listen to my conversation with Jeff about The Ask Approach.
You might enjoy Nicholas Kristof’s column, “At Times Like This, My Advice: Take a Hike!”
If music and movement are your jam, you might like these C2BC Classics: Cellists’ Puzzles & Curiosity, with Leland Ko; Superpower: Curiosity & Athletic Performance, with Addie Bracy; Dance & Embodied Curiosity, with Erin Foreman-Murray; and Curiosity & Creativity, with AJ Smith.
Theme music by Sean Balick; “Mind Body Mind” by Bodytonic, via Blue Dot Sessions.
You can subscribe to Choose to Be Curious on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
