Success As An Experiment

Something I’m really trying to be intentional about is restructuring my perception of success. We’ve been taught to measure success based on outcomes, but I want to shift that to something more in my control. 

Results aren’t guaranteed. They’re the end product of cause and effect, which is a process that involves a variety of factors (many of which you can’t influence). This means that a successful result is only possible when “the stars align”, which is too improbable to bet on. Especially since so many people find their self-worth in their achievements. 

What is always fully in your control, however, are the inputs. The time, effort, and reps you put in to execute a strategy.

This is why I’m beginning to view success as an experiment. Inherently, when you run an experiment, you’re curious to discover the outcome of it. In a true experiment you’re not emotionally attached to what comes from it, you simply create the conditions to produce a certain result that you get to observe.

So In the case of the results you want to produce in life - the health, daily output, relationships, experiences, income and impact you believe will fulfill you - what if you measured your success based on how well you executed your strategy? By how closely you followed the rules of the experiment to ensure that the trial was legitimate and implemented well?

Now that’s not to say that you give up on trying to create good outcomes altogether… Of course you should run experiments that you think will ultimately yield what you want. After all what you choose to put into the system has a massive influence on what comes out at the end… But again, instead of determining if something is a success solely based on the result, you measure your success based on how you showed up for the process of creating it.

It’s something I had to take a hard look at recently. I set a goal to raise $100k through my initiative New Year For Good and achieved less than 10% of that target. Clearly not a successful outcome. But looking at the strategy, which was to partner with health and wellness influencers to serve their audiences, and how I executed it, I certainly am proud of the way I showed up. 

I operated with more boldness, creativity, and risk than I can ever remember. I did my best given what I knew at the time, and that shouldn’t be interpreted as anything other than a wild success.

And in the spirit of treating the campaign like an experiment, now I have an opportunity to understand what about the cause and effect dynamic didn’t lead to the outcome I wanted. 

Was it the wrong strategy? Bad timing? Was I missing a compelling case study? Was the offer not attractive enough? Was my demo not impressive enough? 

Who knows! But since I am choosing to see this campaign as a success, because I fully executed the best strategy.I had, I can get into the reflection process with hope and momentum rather than discouragement and embarrassment. And that will serve to shape the result more positively in the future.

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