You Don't Need a Plan. You Need Curiosity.
“How’s work been for you recently?” I asked my, at the time, best friend, and today still my best friend and now my wife, Majd.
It’s January 2021. We’re standing in the kitchen of Majd’s flat in Dubai, having just returned from a long day of accountancy classes. The air is filled with the beautiful smells of home-cooked Arabic food: the freshly baked fatayer, the sizzling onions from the mujadara, the cumin and spices of the warm falafel.
In many ways, an ordinary Sunday evening. But the conversation which followed would spark a quite extraordinary chain of events that changed everything for me.
“Good thanks, Patrick. Shireen actually recently asked me if I wanted to join the new PwC Middle East Wellbeing Team which she has set up.”
“Wellbeing Team? That sounds cool.”
Majd didn’t know it, but I had recently become curious about wellbeing and high performance. I’d stumbled across my first wellbeing podcast - the sleep scientist Dr Matt Walker on Rangan Chatterjee’s Feel Better Live More show - and it sparked something inside of me.
I had never thought much about sleep but Dr Matt Walker made a convincing case and so I decided to try a few of his tips. The results blew me away. I then got curious about what else I could learn and apply. I listened to another podcast. Then another. I ordered the books authored by the guests appearing on these podcasts. I read. I experimented. I observed. I was absorbed.
That evening, as I sat in the taxi on the way home from Majd’s flat, I thought to myself: “The Wellbeing Team? I think I could really add value there, sharing what I’ve been learning and applying.”
The first thing I did on Monday morning, I messaged Majd on Google Hangout.
“Majd. How do I join the wellbeing team?”
“Leave it with me, Patrick!”
A few hours later, a message popped up, it’s from Majd: “I’ve spoken to Shireen … You’re in!”
I was excited, but nervous. I wanted to make an impact in the new team. I was eager to show Shireen and my new wellbeing team members the value that I could bring.
“I’ve got an idea, Shireen,” I said in that first team meeting. “I recently finished a book by Alex Soojung Kim Pang called Rest. I think the team could really benefit from learning some of this. How about a talk on ‘The Importance of Rest’?”
“Great idea, Patrick! Let’s do it.”
I delivered that first session and left curious to do it again. And so, one session led to another. The next one was on stress. Then movement, energy, focus. Attendance grew. The Abu Dhabi office joined. Then the wider Middle East. I had found a formula. I kept learning, condensing and sharing.
In September 2022, Majd and I then travelled to Oman for a triathlon. Over breakfast at the hotel, I met a man called David, an executive coach who was talking about high performance and wellbeing. At the time, I was reading Brendon Burchard’s High Performance Habits. That conversation with David sparked a new curiosity: I wanted to learn more about coaching.
I messaged David once we landed back in Dubai. We met for coffee the following Friday. He introduced me to Pete, who ran the Accredited Performance Coach course. Something nudged me to sign up, so I did.
After finishing the course and getting my coaching qualification, I started coaching people 1-1 on the side of my job at PwC. One client led to a couple. A couple then lead to a handful.
I then became curious about whether I could actually become a full-time coach. As I was exploring this curiosity, I met with a man called Mick who ran a coaching company - 2b Limitless. A few conversations later, I left PwC and joined 2b.
At 2b Limitless, I met a guy called Jack. We had an immediate connection and I was very impressed with him right from the start. We then started to get curious together: could we build our own coaching company?
And so we did. Wildest Dream was born.
Looking back, my story looks neat. Linear. Intentional. But living it felt messy, uncertain and unpredictable. The reason I am sharing this story with you, is because people often ask me: “Patrick, I want to live a more meaningful, purposeful life. But I don’t know where to start.”
My response is 3 words which I shared with you at the beginning of the New Year, but is a message that I think is worth repeating: follow your curiosity.
We can often think that we need the whole path laid out for us, before we can begin walking. We want the “seventeen steps from today to a fully formed meaningful life”. A clear plan, perfectly designed, that guarantees success. But life rarely, if ever, works that way.
Anne Lamott’s analogy of driving at night comes to mind here: We can only see as far as our headlights. And that’s enough to make the whole journey. We don’t need to see every step ahead. We just need to see a few feet ahead of us, to take the next step. And that is what curiosity does for us - it lights the way, one small step at a time.
We can slip into allowing our rational brain to take over here: “But what will this lead to? How can I make this work? Is this even worth spending my time on?”
This is when I come back to the words of Elif Shafak in her novel based on the poetry of the Sufi poet Rumi - The Forty Rules of Love: “The path to truth is a journey of the heart, not the intellect.”
Curiosity is heart-led and when we begin to follow its lead, momentum begins to build. And so, here’s my question for you: What are you curious about today? Okay, now take just one step, however small, in that direction. Don’t overthink it, just do it.
Because small steps compound. Curiosity opens doors. Doors open to conversations. Conversations lead to opportunities, which lead to that more meaningful life which is waiting for you.
The first step doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to be. Start small and start now. Follow your curiosity and see where it leads you. And if you let it, I think it will take you somewhere quite remarkable.
Deepen Your Curiosity
If you are looking for a place to start, to get inspired in just a few minutes a day, I’d highly recommend picking up a copy of Light Watkins ‘Knowing Where to Look: 108 Daily Doses of Inspiration.’
