Experiment With Life (& a thanks to Mianne)
Everybody’s a mad scientist, and life is their lab. We’re all trying to experiment to find a way to live, to solve problems, to fend off madness and chaos. —David Cronenberg
There are a lot of things I would like to try. Starting my own business, joining a company that allows me to work from home, marketing, graphic design and a few more things. But the more I think about any of these things and if I actually walk through the entire process of doing it I usually talk myself out of even trying it.
- it’s a good idea
- it’ll be really useful
- I could be successful
- but there’s already a lot of people doing something similar out there
- what if it isn’t all I think it’s cracked up to be?
- what if I don’t like it?
- hmm maybe I won’t do it
That’s usually how my thoughts go. I get so emotionally attached to things, over analyze and make sure it’s exactly right before I even consider going ahead with it. I started thinking, what if I approached my years of scientific research in this way? It would be absurd and I surely wouldn’t have accomplished anything.
With that in mind I thought well why not approach life in the same way I did research? I mean it’s essentially the same thing. You want to try something new, see what happens when you do _______, and test or challenge conventional thinking.
I can’t give you a step by step process for how to experiment with things as I’m still experimenting with that as well. I do think you need to be clear on what it is you’re measuring and you should know ahead of time what constitutes a successful experiment and what doesn’t. The key here is to not get too emotionally attached to what you’re experimenting with though.
If there’s anything I’ve learned from a decade of genetic research it’s experiments fail, often a lot more than they succeed. I also learned that a failure is still a result, a very important result. From failures you know what doesn’t work and that can save you a lot of time and energy in going down the “wrong” path.
A few things I’m experimenting with at the moment are:
- a new productivity system (for me)
- the launch of my very first book (I’ll let you know more about the plans for the book on Friday – I’m sure you guys will like it!)
- body cleansing (I’ll tell you more about how it went in April)
- freelance graphic design
What about you? Do you conduct experiments in your own life? What are you experimenting with today?
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And now for the thank you to Mianne. Mianne is a reader of Serene Journey who sent me an email last week with a suggestion for changing the appearance of how posts show up in email for email subscribers. I have to say I was unaware that there was a setting to include the post title in the subject line of the update. But now, thanks to Mianne, you will now see what the post is in the subject line of the email you get from me. Thank you Mianne! I hope this helps you!
If any of you have any tips or suggestions on how I can make this site easier to use/navigate or just make it better feel free to drop me a line and I’ll see what I can do. 
Photo courtesy of: casers jean
9 Responses to “Experiment With Life (& a thanks to Mianne)”
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Thanks for this article. Experimenting is new to me in some ways because I tend to be cautious. However, my new experiment is writing a blog and you are so right to give the advice not to get too attached with your experiments!! I think I already am with this because of it’s subject but I thoroughly enjoy your posts. Please keep it up!!
Lisa: last blog ..Impulse control disorder?!?
Hi Sherri, I have tried hundreds of new things in my life and failed at most of them and I am so grateful for failing as it has taught me so much more than not starting them at all. I would say fail as fast as you , so plan to fail as quickly as possible and when you do succeed at something make it last longer and copy the formula of your successes. Just my thoughts
Good luck with the new book and your new ventures.
Steven Aitchison: last blog ..A Definitive 4 Step Process for Setting Goals
That’s great Lisa! Welcome to the blogsphere. I’m glad you enjoyed the post and I look forward to visiting your home online
Hi Steven! Thank you so much for your comment. I really like your advice about failing fast it’s great. Gets you onto the next thing (success) a lot quicker.
The first 4 bullets of your process are enough to usually stop me dead in my tracks. For some strange reason, they have only provoked me to continue blogging! Go figure. . .
Trece: last blog ..What do you want to be called?
haha …oh my gosh. I got a bit of a surprise when I saw your email in my inbox and you are of course more than welcome (and thank you for the mention). I figure we’re all in this life together and it becomes a bit sad if we can’t help each other out in what ever way we can.
Your blog post is quite an apt title for so many people though (if not all of us at least at some point in our lives). There are so many ways to look at and interpret failure and it’s funny how it seems reinforced in our societies that failure is something to be frowned upon, laughed at or ridiculed. This becomes so much more the case with our global media I think. The bigger we ‘fail’, the more people are likely to hear about it. ….and who wouldn’t want to avoid that?
It then means for us as individuals, it takes so much more effort and will power to redifine ‘failure’ for ourselves, to overcome and use it as a positive. To go against the ‘norm’ and sometimes even prove people wrong. Not for the sake of proving them wrong, but through our intention and passion in believing in what we want to achieve. I read it defined as ‘Purity of Intention’ once.
My view (which I think I mention on my own site?) is that everything we experience in life is a positive experience in the way that we have gained something from what ever it is that has occurred. Everything is a learning experience and if we have just learnt something, we have grown in our knowledge and experience. Through growing and learning we develop as human beings and it enables us to do better the next time. That’s only positive in my books and equates to success.
I have had many successes in my life and I have also had many failures ….but have I? Are they really failures? As you say, from failures we know what doesn’t work and enables us to try other, possibly [hopefully] more productive methods. I feel I have been failing with own profession the last couple of years and it has become difficult at times, but if it ends in the success I am seeking, then have I really been ‘failing’? Maybe it’s just a part of the normal journey to success.
If we can view it in a larger context, any indidual event loses it’s importance and occurrences like ‘failures’ become much less significant and quite possibly, much easier to deal with. It’s almost open for us to define ourselves if we have the courage to do so.
For those people that dare to put themselves forward in expressing their views and philosophies in blogs such as this one …I congratulate you and thank you. They always serve as wonderful resources that can help pick us up when we might be struggling ourselves. That’s why I subscribe to various blogs. We don’t have to do all of this ourselves and there’s nothing better than accumulating like-minded people in our lives.
A very dear friend of mine who died recently once told me ….”one of the most important things in life, other than love, is to find your ‘tribe’”
Good luck with all of your new persuits and goals. We look forward to reading about them.
(PS … apologies for the long post. I just realised I got a bit carried away)
Lately I have started a new experiment. In order to finally stick to the exercise habit I have created a new micro-blog with the info of my workouts and how I feel about them, I try to use it to hold me on the right path as people will see what I’m doing. Hope it works so far…
So far I like how the site looks, not so sure about the google ads at the beginning of the post, but so far I like it. =)
Alejandro Reyes: last blog ..A workout challenge…
Thanks for this post. I often talk myself out of things in a similar way. This post gives me more courage to “give it a try” and not get caught up in the “what if it fails” because “what if it fails?” I’ll survive and be wiser.
Great post. And I love Mianne’s comment [A very dear friend of mine who died recently once told me ….”one of the most important things in life, other than love, is to find your ‘tribe’”] that rings so true for me! Since you made me stop and think about it I experiment quite often. Right now I am trying:
- art history volunteer at my son’s school to test if being an “art teacher” is something I want to pursue.
- selling hand made goods online. I am trying jewelry and magnets right now and so far so good. I look forward to adding prints, note cards, and bookmarks in the future.
- freelance wedding invitation designs. I am a graphic designer and just finished 3 wedding invitation suites this year. I am dabbling in whether that would be a good side gig for me one day.
- food experimenting. I have been working on eliminating hfcs, bht, caffeine and need to add sugar to that list (which i think will be soo tough!)
Thanks for always inspiring me to stop and think Sherri. Good luck with your experiments and with your book I know it will be great!