Adopting an “experimenter” mindset has helped me a lot over the years. Whenever there’s something I feel could be useful or challenging, I set up a simple test for it. Sometimes it’s a simple question with a not-so-simple answer. What if I lived with less stuff? Can you run a company effectively without an office? And even this 91-day vlogging challenge – it started because I want to get better at expressing my ideas.
The results? Sometimes positive, other times not. But the experiment is always successful because I’ve learned more about myself. In this episode, I talk about why I’ve adopted this approach and the value of experiments for my life. Hope you enjoy!
Video Transcript
So Toronto is actually a pretty good reminder. For over a year and, I think it was a year and three months, I didn’t even own a jacket anymore. You only really need one when it’s extremely windy, when it’s raining or snowing. The days that I spend in bad weather are really, really few per year. So I often use different layers of merino wool to keep me warm.
But I did buy one again this February because I found this jacket in a store in Berlin that packs extremely small and it packs down to this very, very small size. Here I’m actually glad that I do have a proper jacket and not just the merino.
Now I’m going to head over for day two of GLC. Today is where the tracks start for each position. So I’m going to be in a MyEO track and learning about the new tools that we’re building and bringing out and the best practices that people are sharing from their experiences over the last year and that’s where I’m going to head now.
The value of experiments
So we just finished a day of training on how to build communities and how to organize events on a global scale and level. It’s already 6:00 p.m. tonight, I spent most of the day inside talking to people, listening to presentations and talking about my experiences. And I was thinking about what to talk about in this episode. I think I want to talk about experiments.
I love experiments. Sometimes for the sake of doing an experiment, sometimes it is because I come across a question that sounds easy but actually isn’t. And most often I’m interested in an experiment because I want to improve myself. There’s a lot of good stuff that has come out of these experiments for me personally:
- Reducing the amount of clutter in my life.
- Building a company without an office.
- Figuring out how to still be efficient.
- Manage people and keep everyone on the same page.
Some have failed, most of them have been successful, even if it’s just in a way that I’ve learned a lot about myself and how I work and think and function.
A trip to the Royal Ontario Museum
Another part that I really enjoy about EO and GLC is the evening socials. But not just the socials at dinner. This time we’re going to the Royal Ontario Museum. And you get paired up with people from all over the world. Looking forward to sitting down next to someone.
They just told us there’s a map of food…
Huge dinosaur! I like that.
Pretty cool.
Vlogging as an experiment
So I talked a lot about experiments. So one point I want to make is my approach to this experiment – Vlogging. I talked in a previous episode about what I want to share and just in general that I like to challenge myself. But I want to emphasize a bit more and why I came up this. The way for me to better scale my time is to be able to hire more people that are acting in my interest or that understand what I want to achieve.
The way my brain works is very left brained. So it’s a lot of bullet points. It’s like A, B, and C. What I’ve realized over the years is that that’s not how you transmit. I think the way you can make someone else feel what you’re feeling and really understand what you’re trying to do, even if you miss a few bullet points, is by telling them the story. Putting them in your shoes and giving them an opportunity to really feel what you’re feeling. For that, I need to become a better storyteller.
And so I’ve asked myself – what are ways that I have to become a better storyteller? There’s blogging, there’s writing, there’s podcasting. But I think what THIS forces me to do is be really creative and tell a story. My mimic, my voice, my pace… That’s what I’m trying to get better at. I want to be able to package my thoughts in a way that I can take them and I can pass them on to you.
Key takeaways
There are two things that I’m asking from you:
Number one – if you ever think “if only I could” or “only I was able to”, run an experiment. Be very playful with it, don’t make it too hard and just get started. And I promise you, you’ll probably see that you can actually do it.
Number two is – I’m looking for someone who helps me run another experiment. Ideally, you’re a doctor or someone who knows a lot about the human body. If that’s you, then please let me know. I won’t name you on the show if you don’t want to be named. But I will probably ask you stuff like:
– What kind of medical tools do I need to check my blood sugar on the go?
– The perfect nutrition that I should have in this and that situation?
– How do I beat jet lag (because maybe there is a situation where I want to beat it and not just embrace it like I said in the other episode)?
– How do I optimize diet and workouts for peak performance in my everyday life?
If you know someone who might be up for this, please put them in touch with me. It’d be super cool to get started on this and with that, I’m out and I’ll see you tomorrow!
You can listen to the audio version here:
