Personal Experiments – be your own lab rat
Experiments can be used in your personal life to explore & better understand yourself, better understand those around you and explore new things – crazy ideas, strategies, habits…
One reason for running an experiment is to find out for yourself if something, some advice or a technique or a tip or a method etc. is beneficial to you . . . but giving it your own ‘test run’.
Experiments are best done using the Scientific Method which proposes applying the below elements…
- Observation – what is it that you have noticed?
- Question / Problem – put the question or problem in writing.
- Hypothesis – what is your informed guess as to the possible outcome?
- Experiment and testing – what tests will you do for the experiment
- Analysis – once the experiment is finished, review the results. Store the data somewhere, analyse it, then write your analysis
- Interpretation – or conclusion. What do you think the results show and how do they impact you
Depending on the outcome of an experiment you could create new goals or habit, run another experiment, or take up the original idea as something you would like to carry on using or doing.
OK, so experiments sounds like a cool thing to try, but what is the point of them and what are some good ones to try out to start with?
Ultimately, the point of an experiment is to find out for yourself if some method or technique helps to make life just that bit better.
Here’s a list of quit simple experiments to try …
- Wake up and get out of bed up 30 minutes earlier every morning for 1 month. Spend that 30 minutes just contemplating the day ahead . . . no smartphone, no radio, no TV. Just you and your morning coffee.
- Read from a book at bedtime – not your smartphone/tablet/laptop – for 1 month
- Read the news ONCE per day.
- Give up Facebook for 2 weeks
- For 1 week, accept things as they are. Accept and observer the things in life that come your way. But still keep yourself safe. This one is a bit ‘out there’ but the hypothesis here is that you can become more peaceful & happy.
Need some more ideas, read this article : Try these 15 life experiments
Among the 100’s of possible experiments which should I try first?
A good starting place is to identify the areas of life that may need some attention (read more here about your “Life Areas” and “Satisfaction Levels“), then determine 1 or 2 things you’d like to change and make each one an experiment.
And one final comment…
Please keep experiments safe.
Scientists agree that good research is ethical in nature and is guided by a basic respect for human dignity and safety.