When finding or changing direction in life, the common approach is to sit in a dark, silent room and think...hard.

However, whilst thinking and reflection absolutely have their place, without taking action and doing things, your progress is...nil.

OG essayist, Ralph Waldo Emerson, captured this best by saying:

"Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood."

So, to learn what we truly want, or how we want to live, we must do more than just think our way through it.

Enter: Living by Experiment

Experimentation can be defined as:

A procedure carried out under controlled conditions in order to discover an unknown effect or law, to test or establish a hypothesis, or to illustrate a known law.

Simplified, an experiment can help in 3 ways when it comes to working out what we like / dislike, or what we want from life:

• Find out new things about ourselves

• Validate assumptions that we have about ourselves

• Reject what we thought we knew about ourselves

I've now applied this in many different ways to my life:

• Tracked my energy levels at different times throughout the day to understand the impact of what I eat and drink

• Experimented with living as a digital nomad in 5 different countries to-date

• Trialled different productivity "hacks" to see which ones work for me and which ones don't

When you're unsure about your next step or how to proceed, design an experiment

There are 3 things to keep in mind when running your life experiments.

• It's not forever: by putting an end-date on something you can try something new without feeling like you are committing "forever". You should be specific here, e.g., 30 days, or 1 week etc.,

• You get to an outcome: like any good experiment, you should have criteria that you measure to help you decide whether your hypothesis stacks up or it should be discarded

• Dip your toe in the water: one of the main reasons I love experiments is because I can ease into a new habit or lifestyle choice. For example, if you want to be a digital nomad, why not try living in another city in your own country first? Try it out, track your criteria and reflect on the outcome.

Experiments are liberating. They give you an answer either way in a short timeframe.

When you're stuck with what to do next, experiments allow you to take action without committing 100% to a new life / habit / decision.

Try it out! What one thing have you been thinking about that you can run an experiment with?