Live Life Like an Experiment
The Art of Experimental Lifestyle!
I wasn’t sure if I should do it, yet I gave it a shot. It was a bright Tuesday afternoon and, I was waiting for my client’s response to the quote—that I had mailed him an hour ago. The amount I had mentioned in my quote was 3x more than what I used to charge. As a copywriter with more than three years of experience, I thought that I was asking for what I deserve for my expertise.
It wasn’t that I was overquoting for my services. I was charging what most writers with my experience were getting. Yet, it was a big leap for me and, I was worried if my client finds it unreasonable, I will lose a few bucks off my greed.
I weighed down the risk, analyzed my financial situation, compared the extreme loss and gain that would incur, and concluded that I could bear to lose a client or two because I already had a few.
So, with the utmost confidence and professionalism, I mailed it. And the risk paid out. My client didn’t even try to negotiate for once. He agreed to the terms, paid the advance, and assigned the task to my team. I was very happy. It was a great deal for us.
This experience reinforced in me the fact that one of the worst transactions you will ever make is selling yourself short. Be aware of your value and, don’t settle for less than what you deserve.
What I learned went well beyond the confirmation of an idea. What I learned was the power of framing, of thinking about life as an experiment.
Advantages of an Experimental Lifestyle
When you live life as an experiment, you are far more willing to take risks, to acknowledge failure and, to learn and develop. The experimental lifestyle encourages you to be the scientist of the laboratory of your lives.
Every new endeavor in life becomes a hypothesis, around which you design an experiment based on the knowledge you collect. As the aim of an experiment is to prove the validity of a hypothesis—whether it is true or not—failure feels more like a one-time observation than a conclusion.
When we are experimenting, we are willing to do all sorts of things we’d be embarrassed to do otherwise.
The best part of the experimental lifestyle is the process of knowledge collection. It helps you take calculated risks. When you have sufficient information around a hypothesis, the likelihood of your success increases.
Procedure
It’s no rocket science. Living an experimental lifestyle is way more simple than doing actual science experiments. However, it utilizes the same steps of the scientific method as well:
Ask a question (ex: Is coffee bad for my health?)
Do some background research (neurological and physiological effects of coffee on a human body)
Construct a hypothesis (coffee is not bad for my health)
Test your hypothesis by experimenting (drink coffee, and monitor your daily consumption)
Analyze your data to draw a solid conclusion (drinking 2-3 cups a day are fine, but any more than that makes my stomach do weird things)
Coffee consumption is just a casual example to make the procedure comprehensible, yet too much coffee consumption does causes ingestion.
When to Run an Experiment
This mental tool works anytime when you’re confused in your life—validating a habit that social media is obsessing about, trying a new sales method in your business, finding a better content strategy, anything.
You can even use it to enhance your people skills—to understand how comfortable the other person is with you or to understand the best way to treat them.
For instance, we men are really bad at fixing our upset girlfriend’s mood. Here is the hack, guys: experiment. Test different hypotheses in different situations, repeat what works, discard what doesn’t. Sometimes flowers would work, sometimes a gentle hug, and sometimes a kiss on the forehead.
You can practice it to improve your health, to improve your work-life balance, to build new habits and hobbies, to get rid of your addictions.
Conclusion
The world isn't a pair of two halves, one black, and the other white. It is grey.
What's legal in one society, might be punishable in the other.
What worked for one startup may not work for your venture.
The habit that changed your favorite influencer's life may not change yours.
Most life advice in this world is subjective, applicable to some, but never to all. That is why I suggest you live your life like a series of experiments, like a research. Try everything, understand what works for and what does not, and then repeat the ones that do. In this continuous world, do not expect discrete answers.
If you need any help to design a personal experiment, feel free to reach out on my Twitter handle.
Until next week
Cheers
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Thank you.