ON EXPERIMENTATION
— why you need to keep going
As a fast-growing creature, you are continually shedding layers of skin.
As a growth-oriented human, you are always reaching for a fuller life.
In your quest for a new adventure, a novel experiment, or the fulfilment of your potential,
you might have changed jobs, left a city, outgrown friends
again and again.
Evolution happens to you frequently and rapidly.
But just because those were the right and necessary moves does not mean you don't experience grief.
If you have loved— a person, a place, a vocation, you would, of course, shed tears when you leave.
Changes always come with risk and uncertainty, and in transit, you might feel groundless.
At times like this, remember the following:
There is no mistake.
Even when you are convinced you have made one;
Even when you are haunted with regret and self-blame;
Even you want to revert to your old way;
There is no such thing as a mistake.
Everything, from perils to glory, is a part of your journey.
Trust the reasons that have brought you here today.
Remember?
You were stuck; you were stagnant; you were suffocated.
You knew what was comfortable offered little opportunities or growth.
You saw that underneath what was familiar was stagnation.
You sensed you were watching life go by without reaching for your full potential.
Can you see that everything is being guided by a universal life force that your naked eyes could not see?
You were initiated to step into something much more profound, and you have courageously answered your calling.
You could miss something without needing to go back.
You did not 'self-sabotage', you were testing a limit to see how far you could go.
That is what all game-changers, trail-blazers do.
As an optimiser, you test boundaries.
You cannot help but know what is lacking and envision the ideal.
You strive to be the change you wish to see.
Your path is made up of a series of experimentations,
though to the untrained eyes it looks like ruthlessness or impulsivity.
Sometimes, you experience a painful push back where you are disconcerted.
The outcome might not be what you want, so you feel disheartened.
None of these means you are not on the right path.
Regardless of the outcome, you have brought yourself essential information about yourself, the world and those around you.
"I have not failed 1,000 times. I have successfully discovered 1,000 ways to not make a light bulb;" this is a line attributed to Thomas Edison.
The way you are is how lightbulbs get invented and how revolutions start.
Everything you did and tried was necessary to guide you to the next step.
You must honour your drive to experiment in life.
The alternative would be to never take any step, to never experiment, and to stop growing.
But your soul would not let you.
Embrace it all.
It is always a triumph.
“Negative results are just what I want. They’re just as valuable to me as positive results. I can never find the thing that does the job best until I find the ones that don’t.”
― Thomas A. Edison
THIS WEEK’S EXPERIMENT: TRY BLIND DRAWING
Set the timer for 10-20 minutes.
Use a big sketchbook, or tape the paper to a board or table, so it doesn’t move around as you draw.
Pick something in your environment, then start drawing its contour without looking at your sketchbook.
Focus your eyes on the object and begin moving your pen to record what your eyes see.
Do not look down at the paper as your draw. Concentrate on how the shapes, lines, and contours of the object relate to one another.
Try to draw a continuous line rather than a sketchy one. Never lift the pen away from the paper.
Don’t worry about the accuracy of the drawing.
Draw until the timer stops.
The result may surprise you.
How was the process?
What did you notice in terms of your thoughts and feelings?
How do you feel about the outcome?
The exercise also helps you begin to see what is actually in front of you and not what you think you see.
Another quote to ponder:
The makeup of your character is not a puzzle with a set number of pieces.Every endeavour, adventure, challenge, and connection you experience over the course of your life weaves another thread into the tapestry of who you are. The work of self is never finished. You are a masterpiece in progress.
Live boldly in the light of this, a life where every decision and action you take is made with the conscious intention of bettering yourself, your circumstances, or expanding your perspective in some way.
— Beau Taplin