Your life as an experiment.
Solve problems like a scientist.
*Bang, bang, bang*
“Fire department. Open up!"
I jolted out of bed and checked my Garmin watch.
2:34 AM.
Strange, the fire department usually doesn’t barge into our apartment until 3 AM on Wednesdays, I hope everything’s okay.
I peak my head of my bedroom door and see 3 of the handsomest firefighters peering back at me, having just crow barred through our front door.
They explain that there’s a gas leak in the building and that they think it’s coming from our kitchen.
My heart sank.
"Holy shit, did I leave the burner on after I totally burnt the crap out of that salmon last night. I wonder if they can smell the burnt salmon. I should really take cooking classes” I thought to myself.
They go on to inspect the stove but after a couple minutes they tell us that the gas leak isn’t coming from our kitchen.
*Pheewph*
They apologize for ruining our slumber and proceed to exit our apartment.
Now, while there still was an active gas leak running rampant in our building, we at least knew it wasn’t coming from our kitchen, and that was enough peace of mind for me to drift back asleep.
As I awoke in the morning, I was greeted by crisis #2 of the day.
It turns out that when the firefighters crow barred into our apartment the night prior, they had completely broken the lock on our door.
It was jammed and we couldn’t get out.
I found my roommate in a panic on the couch, he had tried to yank the door open but had no luck — he was running late for work and there was no sign of getting out anytime soon.
It was those damn handsome firefighters — too strong for their own good.
So what do you do in a scenario like this?
When life throws you an unexpected problem your way. One you haven’t faced before.
I’ll tell you how we solved it at the end.
The Scientific Method
Remember in 6th grade science class when they taught us all about the scientific method?
Make a hypothesis
Test it
See if it worked
If it didn’t, figure out why
Make a new hypothesis
Rinse and repeat
While they mostly taught us to use this method to see if we could make certain chemical reactions happen (pretty useless knowledge in adult life) this method is incredibly helpful when it comes to solving life’s problems.
Using the Scientific Method to Solve Your Own Problems
We all got problems — problems that need fixing.
Whether it’s firefighters breaking your front door, or lack of self-confidence, or wanting to lose some weight — we all got problems.
But what do we do when we don’t know how to solve our problems?
Well, we usually just let it sit there and do nothing — because we don’t know what to do.
But what if we thought a little more like scientists and started running experiments to figure out how to fix our problems.
This is a more-fun, lower-risk way to get yourself to make progress in your life.
It’s just an experiment — it’s not that big of a deal.
We don’t know what’s going to happen. But that’s part of the fun.
Here’s an example from an experiment I’m currently running.
Goal of Experiment: Get myself to be super-high energy everyday without the use of any sort of external stimulants (except food).
I know this is possible because I have friends who are like this — so it’s just a matter of finding the solution that’ll get me there.
To figure it out, I’ve been testing different hypothesis:
First hypothesis: Alcohol ruins your energy. Try no alcohol for 90 days
Next hypothesis: Exercising increases energy. Try exercising every single day
Next hypothesis: Good sleep is important for energy levels. Try getting 90+ sleep score every night.
Next hypothesis: Nutrition is important for energy levels. Start eating more whole foods.
Most recent: Caffeine reliance kills energy levels. Try no caffeine for 30 days.
After each of these experiments, I take note of how I’m feeling, any patterns I noticed and then make a decision whether to keep going down that path or look for alternatives.
One thing to be cautious of is that when doing research for potential solutions, there will be a lot of chatter online about different solutions.
It’s true that different things work for different people which is why experimenting for yourself is super important. You have to be willing to try different solutions to find what works for you.
When choosing which solutions to try I typically look for solutions that are simple, seem plausible, don’t smell too good to be true, and aren’t attached to a paid coaching program.
So here’s the process:
Identify: Choose a problem you want to solve in your life
Research: Gather ideas on potential solutions that have worked for others or derive your own new solution
Hypothesis: Using your research, create an educated guess on what the best solution might be and go test that idea with an experiment
Review: Post mortem — did it work? If not, why? Now go try something else. Rinse and repeat until it works.
Approaching your problems as an experiment is way less intimidating way to approach personal development.
You aren’t putting all this crazy pressure on it to work.
You are acknowledging that you aren’t sure if it’ll work but you are curious to see if it does.
Replace fear with curiosity.
Replace “This won’t work” with “I wonder if this could work?”
Then go and find out. If it doesn’t work, pivot until it does.
So what did we learn?
Life is but a series of experiments.
Replace fear with curiosity and see what happens.
The uncertainty is the fun part.
Until next time,
Flickman
P.S. — So how did we get the door open after being locked inside that fateful morning? We took a knife and slid it into the door frame and were able to jiggle it loose — worked like a charm.