Do you ever feel like your life is on autopilot? Are you seeking ways to optimise your wellbeing and performance personally and professionally?
Beverly Landais explores the concept of life experimentation – a structured approach to testing new strategies for living, working and interacting with the world around you.
A lifestyle experiment involves testing new approaches to living, working, and interacting with others. Once the investigation is complete, you can decide if the impact is positive or negative and whether you wish to continue the change. Thinking about experimentation from a personal perspective can be daunting; it can be hard to know where to start, especially if you feel stuck in a rut.
It helps to keep things simple. A practical framework is to design an experiment using Stop, Start, Continue, Swap, Create and Track. For example, you might stop drinking alcohol on Monday evenings. Then, start this experiment at the beginning and continue until the end of a specific month. You could swap your usual tipple for a mocktail and create the mocktail yourself from scratch. Then, track how you got on and what it felt like.
Here are some examples of lifestyle experimentation to get you thinking:
- Deactivating or pausing social media accounts
- Walking outside for 30 minutes a day
- Cooking a meal from scratch using fresh produce
- Go plastic-free or zero-waste
- Write down three good things that happened during your day
- Read a book that you would not usually pick up
Set yourself up for success by devoting adequate time to each experiment. Timing is up to you, as it will depend on your motivation and the nature of what you are attempting to do. However, giving yourself one month to try out a different approach to learning along the way is generally helpful. Running several tests is possible and desirable; however, beware of firing off in too many directions, as this is less rewarding and potentially exhausting.
A key question is how far you can stretch your ability to emotionally commit? You want to avoid turning this into a grind that becomes a punishing regime. Maintain gentle curiosity as you test out different options and be an interested observer of the results. This approach reduces the pressure to be perfect, which can frequently derail performance and cause disappointment.
To stay motivated, consider partnering with someone who is also pursuing new goals or making life changes. Sharing your goals helps solidify your commitment and provides mutual encouragement. Plus, having someone to celebrate successes with and discuss challenges fosters a strong sense of support and connection.
When thinking about work and future career options, it helps to begin by reviewing your strengths (the things you love doing and are good at). Then, audit your resources (time, energy, money and people who might help and support you). The best way to learn from an experiment is to ensure it has enough resources and plays to your strengths. Think through your options with this in mind.
Where would you most like to spend your time? Visualise the practical steps you would take on each opportunity, starting with your favourite and working down to your least favourite.
Consider the following prompts as you do this:
- Do I buy into this option? If successful, will it play to my strengths?
- Will this option stretch me? If successful, would it make me happy, proud, and personally fulfilled?
- How much emotional commitment will I need to conduct a meaningful experiment? Am I prepared for this?
- How much of my practical resources will it take to conduct simultaneous operations?
- How do I experiment? What are my main drivers, basic requirements and operating model for running a successful experiment?
- Next, starting from where you are, facing what you face, what would you like to happen? What do you want? How can you make your hopes more likely to happen?
Note your options for action and decide which is the first thing, then second, third and so on. Now, review your answers to the steps above. Are you satisfied? What else might you do? Who might you call upon to support you? Write down your responses and consider your options. Now, you can make choices that enable you to move from planning to action.
Remember Walt Disney’s wise words: ‘The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.’
Feeling stuck is frustrating. Get unstuck with some simple lifestyle experiments that you design and can control. Doing simple things and trying out ideas will freshen your thinking. Being reminded that you are resourceful motivates you to make the changes you want for a happier and improved quality of life.
Beverly Landais is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with a senior business background. She works with people and teams to enable them to be at their resourceful best. You can contact her by email at connect@beverlylandais.co.uk or mobile: +44(0)7792 223756.