Changing The Experience
The word resolution denotes something that needs to be solved. A problem, perhaps, that needs fixing. It’s all so formal and final. For 2024, I’m implementing experiments instead of resolutions.
Experiments involve change, tests, trials. They are tentative and fluid. They require tweaking and tinkering, and they eventually lead to breakthroughs, new operations and experiences. And that’s what new starts are all about: changing the experience.
Experiments begin with hypotheses. “What if” statements.
How might I…
What would happen if…
How can I…
What would be the outcome if…
Conjecture is the key. Instead of looking at problems that need to be solved, consider what experience needs to change. What current procedure is leading to an adverse or undesirable event. Or, are the outcomes of your actions yielding the best results? Instead of what could change that ultimate outcome, what steps or actions before that outcome needs reevaluation?
To give you an idea, my 2024 Experiments are built on the following questions and what if statements:
1. How might I ask my kids better questions?
2. How can new music and sounds inspire me?
3. What would happen in a year’s time if I stopped eating deep fried foods?
4. How can I be a more present and alert driver?
With those questions and hypotheses in mind, here are the changes in procedures that I have made:
1. For my kids, start with: How, Will you, and What are you going to do about …
2. Sound should lead to movement, movement should lead to inspiration.
3. Fried = dead.
4. Stop lights are not for scrolling
It’s not rocket science, though it is a blast off feeling to look at your areas of improvement in a scientific way. And the best part is that experiments come and go. You start one and it succeeds; great! Execute one and it fails; create a new one.
That’s the beauty of science: experience. When we experience, we grow. When we look for problems, we find them.
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This Post is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: iStock
