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Finding Opportunities to Experiment
Every day is an opportunity to experiment. And the more we experiment, the more we get to test things out. Whether in a controlled lab, a meeting, a walk on the beach or an unexpected interaction, experimenting is available to each of us.
It’s an exciting time to stay open and experiment, because we get to explore unanticipated directions and important opportunities.
Many choices are to be made, as we become aware of the conscious and unconscious choices we make in every moment. The tipping points arrive through our ability to experiment with possibilities by questioning everything.
As we do, we will create healthy relationships, systems, and organizations that serve the many rather than the few. And through experimentation, we will play with possibilities.
Letting Go
Experimenting as a way of life is not for everyone. And it’s especially not for people clinging to the past. Like Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, many will continue to resist the increasing and inevitable changes that are coming. But the pioneers among us are simply imagining and creating what we need through experimentation.
We may have been taught not to burn bridges, but life teaches us that some bridges take us nowhere. And it is beneficial to abandon them altogether.
For anyone ready to let go of the past, a whole new world opens up. We learn to cut not only cords but patterns that weigh us down. Like fresh snow, we get to experiment with new beginning. Robert M. Pirsig, in the Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, shares, “An experiment is never a failure solely because it fails to achieve predicted results.”
And we now understand we didn’t come here to solve the world’s problems. We are here to create meaning from our hearts with integrity, curiosity, courage and whatever makes us tick.
One of our biggest opportunities, and of course it’s personal, is to invite conversations, listen to questions, and share points of view. When we keep having the same conversations with the same people, we replicate the same patterns. But when we open ourselves up to conversations with young people, for example, we can learn so much.
A Wild Time to Experiment
There is something truly magical when we gather in purposeful circles and everyone has a voice. And when we choose to trek into the unknown together, we allow ourselves to experiment.
So much is possible when we work collaboratively and lift each other up. And now is the time to experiment because we need to suck less at collaboration and truly learn how to build trust. Trust frees us to create meaningful relationships, communities and systems.
What’s in our control is being able to be curious about our gifts, our talents, and opportunities. And also to experiment with where we can put them into action. When we have a healthy mindset and are open to life, we make decisions aligned with our inner guidance, and not in fear.
And we understand, in the words of Richard Buckminster Fuller, that “There is no such thing as a failed experiment, only experiments with unexpected outcomes.”
What is your wild experiment?
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