Latest / How Not To Give Up with Kathy Tulley / You're Not Lost. You're Still Exploring.

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You're Not Lost. You're Still Exploring. · How Not To Give Up with Kathy Tulley

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Everything gonna be alright, alright, everything gonna be alright, alright, everything and be alright, alright, alright, alright.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: When do we decide if we don't know where we're going, we must be lost?
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Seriously, give me that role.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because somewhere along the way, we got the idea that we're supposed to know what we're doing, where we're going, what's next, what we want to be when we grow up, which is really funny when you consider how many of us have already grown up, and we're still trying to figure that one out.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: But I've also been wondering something.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: What if not knowing what's next doesn't mean something's wrong?
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: What if something sometimes you're not lost?
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: You're still exploring.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now, sometimes we really are lost.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Life can throw us some circumstances we never expected.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Things can change so dramatically that the map we've been holding and using doesn't make sense anymore.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we generally don't know what to do.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not suggesting we pretend otherwise, but I wonder if you've been giving yourselves an awfully hard time for not already knowing all the answers, especially when we haven't finished asking the questions.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna tell you about something that happened years ago.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: I went to a science museum.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now I've always loved art and I've always been fascinated by science, figuring out how things work.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: This particular day, there was a Leonardo da Vinci exhibit.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: There wasn't just a bunch of pictures on walls.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: There are models of inventions based on his drawings, little models to full scale, big ones, full-size machines, pulleys, and levers and all kinds of mechanical contraptions.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: You could actually get your hands on them.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Kids and grommets were manipulating things, experimenting, playing, seeing how they worked.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: It was having so much fun, I was having a ball.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because here's what fascinated me.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't just interested in what Leonardo da Vincio had invented.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to know, well, how did he think of that?
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: What was happening in his world?
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: What caught his attention?
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: What made him curious?
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: What questions was he asking?
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: What was he trying to figure out?
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: And how did those questions become drawings, designs, and actual inventions?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because when you look at something somebody created, you're seeing the result.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm fascinated by what happened before the results.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: The wondering, the investigating, the experimenting, the trying something and seeing what happens.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's for things really get interesting to me.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then that same day, I went to the museum's IMAX theater, and there's this wonderful film about Min Sun Bango.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't a documentary.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was a fictionalized story told from an imagined version of his point of view.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I love that.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: An imaginative exploration of his world, his art and things happening around him, experiences seeing the world through an artist's eyes.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I was fascinated all over again.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Only this time, I was looking at inventions and wondering about, instead of looking at inventions and wondering about the mind behind them, I was looking at its art and wondering about the mind behind that.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: And somewhere in the middle of all this, something struck me.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: One of the best art days of my life happened in a science museum.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, how about that?
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: And that got me thinking.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Art, science.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: We tend to talk about them as though they're completely different worlds.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Art over here, science is over there, creativity on one side, investigation on the other.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Wait a minute.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Who had I just spent the day experiencing?
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: People wondering how things work, people noticing things, asking questions, experimenting, imagining possibilities, trying to understand something, trying to create something, and sometimes trying something just to see what would happen.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Ooh, that sounded awfully familiar.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because what if art and science have more in common than we usually think?
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they're both ways of exploring the world.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Different tools, different methods, different kinds of questions, but curiosity running through both.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's interesting.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that experience planted the first spark of an idea for me where art and science meet.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't walk out of the museum with some grandmaster plan.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't have a business proposal, no five-year strategy.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: I had a question, and that idea that made me curious ever since.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Later, I began developing other possibilities about bringing art and science together.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: But that day, that was just the beginning.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Not a finished project, not a destination, a spark.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: That was enough.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: I've been thinking about this because when we watch little kids, they do something wonderful.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: They explore, they ask questions, they investigate, they pick things up, turn it over, look underneath, take things apart, and occasionally give the adults around them a very good reason to pay attention.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: But they're curious.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: They don't necessarily know what they're going to discover.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's part of the fun.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: I have a little character I've been developing named Daisy.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: She's in first grade and she does science.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: And one of her favorite things to say is, let's find out.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Not let's make sure we already know the answer.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Not let's wait until we're completely qualified.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Not let's avoid anything we not but might might not be good at.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Just let's find out.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm beginning to think we grown-ups could use a little more of that.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps somewhere along the way, we start treating not knowing as if it were a personal failure.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to have the answers.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to have a plan.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to know what we're doing.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And heaven forbid we try something we're not already good at.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Wait a minute.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: How are we supposed to discover something new if we're only allowed to do what we already know?
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's a question.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to be careful here.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that everyone who's struggling just needs to get curious.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes life is genuinely hard.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we're dealing with things that require help, resources, time, or decisions we don't want to have to make.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Curiosity doesn't erase any of that.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: But I wonder if sometimes, even in the middle of our real circumstance, there's room for a different kind of question.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of demanding, what am I supposed to do with my life?
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: What if we started with, huh, what's interesting here?
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Or what have I been wondering about?
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Or what would I like to understand a little better?
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Or even what might be worth trying for five minutes?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Not because it's guaranteed to change your life, not because it's going to turn to a business, not because you're supposed to become some expert, but because you're curious.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: And curiosity can lead to discoveries.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the discovery is that you really enjoy something.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Or sometimes you discover you're actually not interested after all.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes one question leads to another question, and sometimes you know it's a connection between so you never would not belong together, like art and science in a science museum on one of the best art days of your life.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: There's something I particularly love about that.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to know what an idea is going to become before you're allowed to explore it.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: You can give it a chance to exist.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: You see where it goes.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: You can learn something along the way.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't have to become anything enormous to have been worth your time.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Try to play with an idea called being a hope detective.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: So don't worry, you don't need a trench coat, but that could be fun.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe a magnifying glass, a notebook, a very mysterious expression.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: But really, the idea is pretty simple.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: You look for clues, you notice things.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: You ask questions, try a little experiments, you pay attention to what you discover.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes we get so focused on finding the answer that we overlook the clues right in front of us.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe hope doesn't always begin with some ginormous, glorious feeling.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe sometimes it begins with practitioners, one possibility we hadn't noticed before.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: One thing we're still curious about.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: One thing we might like to try.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: One little piece of evidence that says, huh, maybe there's something here.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: And that doesn't mean the whole situation is solved.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: It just means we know something worth exploring.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think about that day in the museum.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know it was going to spark an idea about bringing art and science together.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: I was just fascinated by what I was seeing and experiencing.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: And because I was paying attention, I noticed a connection.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: A connection that stayed with me, and later gave me more ideas to explore.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's pretty dang wonderful.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: So can I invite you to try some this week?
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing enormous, no life overhaul, no five-year plan, no 17 system with a workbook, three spreadsheets, and a certification at the end.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Although I do love a good spreadsheet.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Just this.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Notice one thing that makes you curious.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Something that catches your attention, something you've been wondering about, something you'd like to understand, try, make, or investigate.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't have to be important.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: It does not have to be reproductive.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: And you do not have to figure out how a way to monetize it.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: Just notice it.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: And if you have the opportunity, give it five minutes.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Five minutes to look something up, sketch an idea, ask somebody a question, experiment.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Or five minutes to imagine what else might be possible and ask yourself, what did I notice?
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Not, did I succeed?
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Not was I good at it?
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Not was it worth my time?
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Just what did I notice?
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: Did something surprise you?
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: Did another question pop up?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Did you discover something you didn't already know before?
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Did you find yourself smiling?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Or did you discover it wasn't nearly as interesting as you thought?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's okay too.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: You're collecting clues.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes the most interesting clue is the one you weren't even looking for.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to know where we're going, have everything figured out, to know what comes next.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: And when we don't, we start wondering if we somehow got lost.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's another possibility.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we don't always need the whole map.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we just need permission to explore, perhaps, to ask a question, to be curious, to notice a connection, try something small and see what happens.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe, just maybe, the next interesting discovery is waiting somewhere we wouldn't ordinarily think to look.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like an artist finding one of the best art days of your life in the science museum.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: So if you don't know exactly where you're gonna go right now, you don't have to pretend you do.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to have all the answers before you're allowed to begin.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe you just get to be curious.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe today you get to ask, huh?
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: What else might be possible?
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe, like Basy, you get to say, let's find out.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes you're not lost.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: You're still exploring.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad you're here.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: And remember, the story isn't finished, and neither are you.