Let’s review. What have you done so far? You’ve taken the lead and you’ve pursued clarity. Now you get to go and be curious. If you’re thinking, “that seem like an odd step in creating a strategy. Why does she say to do that?” then I say, “Yay! You’re curious!”

I just googled curiosity, and saw the best quote: “Curiosity makes you smarter.” It’s an advertising slogan for a curiosity.com, a site that offers short learning bites, memes and videos. My favorite title so far is Are Mites Having Sex on Your Face? Awesome.

Does curiosity make you smarter? Sure. Yes. Absolutely. Being curious means your brain is engaged. Following your curiosity teaches you things: how to ask questions, how to ask BETTER questions, how to find answers, and yes, even the answers to the questions.

are in the process of building a strategy, and let’s be honest. You don’t want an average strategy. You want a great strategy, a smart strategy, one that works for you, one that will help you get what you want. You just spent time getting clear on the problem and the outcome that you want. So let’s get curious about how you might find the best answers. Let’s get smarter.

And let’s get even more honest. You are not starting out at the beginning, so there really aren’t any “done for you” templates for the strategy for solving your particular career dilemma. You’re actually looking for a very specific thing here, but it doesn’t exist yet. So you have to create it, so that means you need to be creative as well as smart.

Curiosity is about exploration, research and inquisitiveness. Think about a curious child – how do

they approach life? They touch, taste, smell and look at everything! They ask lots of questions. They try things out.

Curiosity is not the same thing as analysis, and certainly not getting caught up in analysis paralysis.

Another thing about getting curious is that you need to suspend both disbelief and judgement. You want to be like a research scientist – open minded, objective and not too heavily influenced by assumptions. Sure, you’ll reach a conclusion, but AFTER you’ve done some research and gathered some data.

So put on your scientist’s hat and get curious. I talk about this in depth in my book, Whoops! I Forgot to Achieve My Potential. If you’d like a free copy of the audiobook, click here.

Again you ask, “why do I need to be curious to develop my strategy?” Now I’ll answer you. You have questions, a dilemma or two to solve. I’ll give you another Einstein quote. “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” If you want to create a strategy that gets you out of your current crisis, you need to think differently as you craft your strategy. Getting curious will make you think differently.

What are you supposed to be curious about? Ah, good question! Get curious about the things you discovered in the last step, getting clarity. What are your options? What do you like or not? Sample. Taste. Touch. Try. Try before you buy. Volunteer. Check out events. Talk to people. Brainstorm. Dream. Google search. YouTube. TedTalks. Pull at threads, see where they go. Talk to more people. Know that you are figuring out what works for you, not just following the experts. You can get their advice, but once you’ve done your research and gathered your data, draw your own conclusions.

Keep what you want, dismiss what you don’t want. Your strategy will contain better solutions because you were curious.

Up next: Step 4. Call Out Your Assumptions.

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This is Part 3 in the blog series: You Need A Strategy! (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) No matter what is going on in your life or your career, creating a strategy is one of the most empowering things that you can do to guarantee success and happiness.

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In the midst of a career crisis or transition? Sound like the kind of things you’re thinking about? Want help thinking through your strategy? Request a Strategy Session. Email to set it up: maggie@talktomaggie.com.

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Maggie Huffman is a best-selling author and Life Coach, specializing in making business skills “transferable” to life skills!