This is a guest post by Makenzie Kelly, @makenziekelly.

“Judge a man by his questions rather than answers”, Voltaire

Some say curiosity killed the cat.  I say what doesn’t kill the cat, makes it stronger!

Curiosity has been classified as a nice-to-have attribute of a person; it definitely hasn’t been a reinforced attribute by our education system because some feel curiosity may not really serve a purpose.

“It is amazing that curiosity survives formal education” Einstein

Yet, Einstein and other notable scholars have developed entire theories, solved unsolvable equations, and come up with amazing solutions to our world’s problems by solely being curious. How does curiosity work?

• Curiosity allows us to ask questions
• Curiosity is innocent, so we can be curious about anything, there are no limits
• Curiosity allows exploration
• Curiosity has no room for judgment
• Curiosity spurs amusement and fun

How can you use curiosity to further your personal development?

1. Ask A Lot Of Questions

And don’t just ask questions that have easily solvable answers.  I remember my son at five years old once asked me, “Mommy, why do I always confuse my left and right, but I never confuse my up and down?”  Such a simple question, but the answer befuddled me…and the question was a valid one.  Questions in their simplest form draw our attention to a problem, and then curiosity starts digging into the problem.

2. Use Curiosity To Melt Resistance

If you are meeting resistance in a certain area in your life, get curious.  If you are angry, sad or bitter, get curious about why you’re having those feelings. Curiosity does a funny thing and melts away your self-judgment about the issue at hand that may be bothering you.

3. How Can I?

When you are faced with a problem, use your curiosity, start asking questions and wonder “How Can I” solve this problem.  When we get our mind out of reactive mode, get curious about the resolution, our mind reacts more positively and we can intuit more comprehensive solutions.

4. Let Your Mind Run Unhindered

Start writing down your questions and let your mind run free.  Sometimes the more curious we become, the more the questions can freely flow out of our head onto paper.

5. Engage Your Subconscious In A Conversation

Curiosity is a tool to our subconscious.  We don’t like being judged, neither does our subconscious.  But we do like it when people ask questions about us and engage us in conversation.  This is exactly what we do to our subconscious when we get curious, we engage it in a conversation.

6. Reframe Your Problems

Realize that we cannot solve a problem if we don’t know what the underlying question is.  Curiosity helps to frame our problems in such a way that we can answer them.

7. Extinguish Boredom

Ever notice how young children never seem to be bored? Their minds are jumping from one exploration to the next, hands and feet in tow.  Their insatiable curiosity about the world eliminates boredom.  In fact, I doubt that boredom even exists in their cognition!

Curiosity is so innocent, and often overlooked as a useful tool for personal development.  We tend to want to beat ourselves over the head with perfecting our existence on this earth.  Instead of trying to be perfect at bettering yourself, try just being curious.  What can you get curious about?

Makenzie Kelly is a Time Rescue ™ Expert and Avidly Curious about Time!  An entrepreneur and paramedic she retired from a Multi-Million dollar business and give up a 6-figure salary to have more Time and Freedom!  She blogs about Ultimate Lifestyle Design at the Freedom Venture Project ™ Blog.