Running Experiments on Ourselves

Lowering the stakes.

There are things I’ve thought about doing for years. Things I genuinely want. And yet every time I get close to taking action, I find a reason not to, freezing or fleeing from the thought of taking action.

I’ve been trying to understand why.

What I’ve noticed is that when this happens, underneath the moment lies a concern that I don’t know how to do what needs to be done. Maybe I lack the skills, intelligence or expertise to navigate the process. Or maybe there’s an element of putting myself out there. Not necessarily in terms of visibility, although that can be part of it. More often, it’s about admitting to myself that I want something and I want it badly. It’s not always easy to admit to our own desires.

(I’m not talking about when you don’t want to do something because it’s boring. That’s bog-standard procrastination. Which is exactly where I’m currently at with the storage room in our apartment that needs cleaning. The idea of doing that task doesn’t make me freeze or flee; it just makes me want to cry from boredom.)

To date, the only way I have been able to significantly mitigate the fear that arises in these moments is by framing it as an experiment.

There is something about that framing that makes it feel both grown up (look at me, getting that quantitative and qualitative data for myself) and very low stakes. Like I’m back in high school biology class, making up hypotheses for the day’s experiment.

It gives the whole experience a ‘let’s just see what happens’ air.

Some low stakes but surprisingly enlightening experiments I’ve run recently include:

• Tracking my food in an app to see how much protein I was actually eating. Answer: more than I thought. More interestingly, tracking it made me eat even more protein because I got competitive with myself. Unfortunately, the effect wore off when I stopped tracking the data.

• Bringing on a VA to see if alleviating myself of some of the more administrative business tasks would create space for additional creativity and energy. The answer - a resounding yes.

The reason I’ve been thinking about this recently is that I started a new experiment.

My business thrives on a steady stream of new clients. Based on quick calculations I ran the other day, around 65% come via word of mouth and 35% via social media. That’s working well, but I’m always curious about what else might help support that stream.

A couple of weeks ago, I met a former client for coffee. During our conversation, she mentioned she’d started running Google Ads on the recommendation of someone in her industry and was seeing some success.

The full chain of events was this:

• Spend multiple years getting offered Google Ads credit and thinking, Hmm, maybe I should look into that.

• Continue doing nothing about it.

• Meet a former client for a coffee and hear that she’s been having some success with Google Ads after a colleague recommended them.

• Come home and immediately launch myself into a rabbit hole of research. I do not ignore the muse as mentioned here.

• Spend a week tweaking my website, creating a landing page and then turning on the ads.

• Sit back and watch.

As of one week into live ads, nothing exciting has happened. But the thing is, that’s ok.

For years, Google Ads sat in the category of things I should probably investigate one day. Now they’re simply something I’m testing.

If it turns out Google Ads isn’t a tactic that helps me generate a new stream of client enquiries, that’s useful information too.

The experiment has already given me something valuable: I’ve stopped wondering. And that’s one of the things I like most about experiments. They lower the stakes enough to get me moving.

So what about you, what are you treating as a high-stakes decision that could instead be a low-stakes experiment?

I am a business and career coach, offering one-to-one coaching and team training. To explore working with me you can book an intro chat, visit my website or email me at holly@holly-garber.com.