Everyone has heard everything about personal development and change. Things come and go. What we consider important today, may be of little value tomorrow. There is a fluidity to life, that as you get older, reveals itself.
Experiments have a very clear beginning and end. While there may be some disappointment if an experiment does not work, we know we then must try something different if we are to succeed. Experiments forego emotion to use objective results to help plan the next steps. They nurture an environment of adjustment, more trial, and multiple pivots as we begin to learn more through experimentation. Experiments provide a rich analogy for describing our interactions with daily life.
I stumbled upon this awareness of the power of looking at everything you do as an experiment while reviewing everything we did over the last few years to grow our business, I discovered that some things worked extremely well while a lot of others either did not work or had minimal impact. Once I viewed our attempts as experiments, it becomes much easier to abandon those that did not work and focus more on things that did. Assuming that successful earlier experiments can be reproduced with some degree of certainty of continued success.
All of this is well and good. But this is not where the power of viewing everything you do as an experiment resides. When you adopt this perspective believing in the power of experimentation, you distance yourself and your ego from your result. Especially when the result is poor. When bad things happen to you, believing in experiments absolves you of having direct responsibility for the result. Believing in experiments reminds you to adjust and try again. Or pivot and go in a different direction. Experimentation gives us a sense of freedom and agency to continue to work for the results we desire.
Experiments must continue to be run. Much like our lives. Silencing our ego by always giving us hope the next time we try. As long as we are honest in evaluating what we see and experience. Either, we keep testing until we prove to ourselves our belief or assumption is wrong or keep trying different tactics until we prove our belief or assumption is correct. Continuously searching for paths to get to the outcomes we desire. And to continuously test our beliefs and worldviews, finding ways to adjust them for more personal or professional success.
For what constitutes personal change and development? Exactly what we outlined in the last paragraph. Making life, our future, and our ability to realize our dreams all seem possible if we embrace the structure, discipline, perspective, and freedom that experimentation offers us.
Bringing immense power into our lives when experimentation becomes part of our worldview as to how things should work.