Bored? Unfulfilled? Running Experiments Can Supercharge Your Life

Courage is not the absence of fear, but the judgement that there is something more important than fear. Ambrose Redman

If you have been feeling your life is a bit anemic and want to give yourself a major energy transfusion, Steve Pavlina has a great post entitled Personal Growth on Steroids: The Strategy of Immersion. Between Bear Bombing and Fear Blasting, I am increasingly intrigued by Steve's take on things.

Here's the article intro:

If you want to expand your horizons and try new things in life, the strategy of immersion is one of the best ways to do it.  Instead of merely dipping your toes in the water, immersion means you dive in head first.  This isn’t a strategy that appeals to the timid;

however, with a sufficient degree of courage and adventurousness, immersion can enable you to make huge strides in your growth in a short period of time.

I tend by nature to approach life this way, and found the article resonated with my own experiences. I'll give you a couple examples of completely unexpected developments in my life that were borne out of this approach just to nudge you to play with this. You really never know what the next experiment will yield.

I used to participate in a small theatre/discussion group with several women would meet once a week to read plays on various women's issues aloud and then discuss them. I love theatre but my entire acting experience was one line in a 3rd grade play. I attend all the time, since Chicago is such a great theatre town but had never been bitten by the acting bug. 

Much to my surprise, I discovered I loved reading the plays and have a natural aptitude for story development (I even have a film credit to my name).  Through my involvement with this group I became friends with a local playwright  who now lets me play around with her works in progress, reading them behind the scenes to give feedback and performing dramatic readings at local playwrights' festivals and attending rehearsals of staged productions.  Quite serendipitiously I ended up with a great outlet for a talent and love I never would have suspected I have and I can do it at a level that works in my life (very occassionally) and is pure joy for me.

Another unexpected experience resulted when I was considering a career change (due to burnout as a therapist) and wrote Charlie Trotter (one of the premier chefs in the country) a letter asking for advice on pursuing a culinary career (I hadn't discovered coaching yet).  The next thing you know I was cooking in his kitchen to try it out.  That experience alone was phenomenal. Premier chef, Charlie Trotter personally called me at work simply because I wrote him a letter. It blew my mind.   

Even better, I learned something from the experience that has stayed with me to this day. His advice is very similar to what Steve suggests.  Just try it (whatever new experience you are curious about) and if you don't like it at least you have answered the question for yourself and you go back to what you were originally doing with a clearer understanding that you are where you are supposed to be, or you have greater clarity around the next experiment to run. 

Remember that your life really is an ongoing experiment.

Of course, that is easier said than done. Adults are not always so good at running their life as a series of experiments. We fear the learning curve and we get obsessed with wanting to make the "right" decision. We have to get back to just saying "I don't know, let me try it and see." with whatever strikes our fancy.  Nearly every passion I pursue at this point came to me in just that way.  And trust me, it gets easier to tolerate the learning curve when you release yourself from the outcome. 

Nike's slogan, Just Do It, truly is brilliant advice. 

A bit off topic but while I'm thinking of it for new bloggers: One word of advice for those of you thinking about blogging (ala Steve's article), do yourself a favor and, if you find you are liking the process, switch from a freebie site to TypePad.  I ended up with 300 posts at Blogger in a very hodge podge site and the thought of transfering it to Type Pad and trying to organize myself took me months to get to.  Now life is much easier, but with immersion comes momentum if you find a great fit, so don't get drowned in your own wave.

Laura Young / Wellspring Coaching

Comments

[Scott Young]

Good post.

People would do good if they could just swallow their pride and try even when they don't know how or might look stupid.

Throw my suggestion in for wordpress if you are thinking of starting a blogging account aswell! ;)