The Thing About Experiments

Few things are more useful than an experimental approach to life.

It’s hard to adopt.  The thoroughly schooled mind makes it much harder.  Conditioning breeds a firmly tracked mind, where decisions are all treated with great weight, as if once-for-all.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

“What’s your major?”

Etc.

Approaching opportunities as experiments, and even creating your own regular experiments in personal growth is a key to success.

But there’s a hitch.

When most people think “experiment”, they imagine sort of timidly dipping their toe in the water.  The Goldilocks approach of a dab of this, a smidge of that to see what suits me.

That might work at the buffet, but it won’t work with bigger stuff and professional opportunities.

Yes, treat everything not as your forever life path but as an experiment.  BUT, you can’t learn or gain or leverage an experiment into something awesome if you half-ass it.  You have to engage each experiment as if it is your one true calling.  Live it.  Own it.  Dive in head first.

Every job or project you do, go all in.  Be the best at it.  Become it.  Then when you find a new opportunity, quit and go all in on that!

You won’t find those new opportunities or learn from your experiments if you half-heartedly engage.

Don’t worry so much about whether something is the “right” thing.  If it looks interesting, experiment with it.  But REALLY experiment with it.  Work your butt off at it.  Be awesome at it.

That’s how you win an experiment and let it take you to the next cool thing.