How to Experiment
Experimentation has been the lifeblood of my philosophy as an adult. Like a scientist in their laboratory, I've transformed my life into a continuous series of thoughtful explorations.
Unlike goals and plans that have specific outcomes and expectations in mind, experimentation offers a different path—one without rigid expectations. It is the ultimate expression of the age-old spiritual teaching found in many scriptures: focus on the journey over the destination. Experimentation has become my way of putting this teaching into action.
I wasn't always this way. For years, I approached life like an equation to be solved, setting rigid goals and becoming frustrated when variables wouldn't cooperate. After taking a traditional approach to life and feeling unsatisfied with how I felt, despite often achieving what I had set out to do, I decided to change my approach to be less attached to outcomes.
At the start of each year, I like to set intentions.
The first task is to pick a one-word theme to guide my choices throughout the year. This is my North Star, helping me make decisions, big and small. Last year, my one-word theme was Flow, which taught me to release control and trust the natural rhythm of life. This year, it is Inspire.
The one-word intention is purposefully broad and abstract, allowing space for it to unfold and manifest however it chooses to as the year progresses. If you have not yet picked a word as your theme for 2025, I encourage you to do so. Now.
Next are choosing a set of priorities—usually three to five areas of life that I wish to focus my energy on. These are fairly obvious categories, such as health, relationship, career, family, learning, writing, giving, and more. What's less obvious though are the relative prioritization of them and the implicit trade-offs needed to really call them priorities.
And next comes choosing my experiments. Last year, I had two experiments: Unscheduled and Unplugged.
Unscheduled was an experiment to bring to life my intention of Flow by relying less on calendaring and planning things in advance. After decades of being ruled by my calendar and commitments, adopting an unscheduled mindset gave me permission to be more spontaneous, to tune into how I was feeling and what I was needing. I loved it, and now it has become a natural part of my rhythm in life.
Unplugged was an experiment to see how many days I could disconnect from my phone completely—no email, no WhatsApp, no social media, no news. I ended up getting a second phone to support the experiment, which had only basic utilities such as Uber and Google Maps that I realized I needed for daily life. I tracked this experiment and had 63 days in 2024 without connection to the world. It was much higher than I would have guessed, and I appreciated each day that I unplugged from technology to connect more deeply.
As I brainstormed in my journal this morning about experiments for 2025, several ideas emerged, each aligned with my one-word intention of Inspire.
In the realm of health, I'm curious about tracking days of fitness activity across strength, flexibility, and endurance, as well as documenting the changes I notice with regular red light therapy with my new home panels.
For professional growth, I'm considering challenging myself to avoid checking the stock market before noon, after noticing how market fluctuations influenced my daily mood last year.
I'm also excited about expanding my AI toolset beyond ChatGPT, which I currently use 30 to 40 times daily, to discover new tools that I can incorporate into my daily lifestyle.
I continue to love writing and appreciate all of the encouragement I receive from those around me about my books and my blogs. I am curious to see how many books I write and publish this year.
What's important to me with experimentation is avoiding specific goals or targets. That creates pressure and dramatically shifts the energy with which I approach the activity. The joy of experimentation lies in not knowing—or frankly caring about—the result, instead finding delight in the process itself.
The other powerful benefit of framing activities as experiments is their defined timeframe. An experiment has a clear beginning and end. When I commit to exploring something for a specific period, it becomes more approachable than making a lifetime commitment.
Through years of living this way, I've discovered that experimentation isn't just a method for personal growth—it's a mindset that transforms challenges into adventures and uncertainties into opportunities for discovery.
Each experiment has shaped my understanding of myself and the world around me. This is the true art of experimentation: finding wisdom in the willing exploration of life's possibilities.
And that is how I learned to experiment.
