Life is A Series of Experiments

That’s not a bad thing if we have the right mindset.

If you’ve been feeling stuck trying to make a change in your work or life, it could be related to your mindset. As a refresher, mindset is the way of seeing that shapes our thoughts, feelings and behaviors. 

Rather than staying frustrated and confused as to why a desired change isn’t happening, try to get curious about your mindset. Have you already formed negative judgments about the new tasks or goals on your list—judgments like not wanting to submit imperfect work, not being willing to take a risk, fear of failure, or not having all the answers--so why bother?  

Adopting an experimental mindset can help us move forward. By nature, experiments ask the question, “What if?” In essence, any good experiment incorporates a curious mindset to try a given approach and see what happens. Valuable data are gained. Adjustments are made and another experiment can be run. Most importantly, we are now moving forward and making progress. 

In truth, there is no way for any of us to know ahead of time how something is going to turn out. It’s only after we make the move and generate the “thing” that we’re trying to do that we understand if it was the right thing to do. Sometimes we just have to take the step, because taking the step is part of knowing if it’s the right step to take. 

How is your mindset helping or hindering your progress today?