If you need a starting point or some examples to choose from in coming up with an experiment, you can begin with the list below.

Learning, Doing, & Connecting

Note that I’ve broken the experiments down into three categories: Connecting, learning, and doing.

Of course, the three categories almost always overlap to some extent: If you are doing, you are almost certainly learning, and you may very well be connecting with people, as well. And if you are connecting– for example, through an informational interview– you are almost surely learning, also.

So the three are far from mutually exclusive.

Nevertheless, I like to distinguish among these categories in order to encourage people to experiment in all three categories, and not just one or two of them. I’ve found that doing so will get you the best results.

Too often, for example, I find that peoples’ experiments involve only learning or only learning and doing, but not connecting. And many times, these people are less successful in allowing their paths to evolve because– well, to put it frankly, it doesn’t matter a while lot what you’re learning and doing if nobody knows about it. More often than not, it is your connections that will expose you to new contacts, new opportunities, and new ways of thinking that you wouldn’t have known about or considered before. So make sure you’re connecting. Also make sure that you’re learning and doing so that you have something to talk to your connections about and something to show.

Got it?

List of Examples

Learning:

• Take a class
  • Find a listing of local classes in your area by searching through course offerings at local universities.
  • Google “classes in (your city).” When I did this for my hometown, I got lots of results: Community education and other adult classes, noncredit and weekend classes at a local university, Spanish classes, pottery classes, and more.
  • Coursera.org offers hundreds of university classes online from universities like Stanford… all for free.
• Read a book
  • Just start browsing through Amazon book lists (or the library!) and pick one that looks interesting. OR ask someone interesting what books they’re reading that they’d recommend.
• Read a blog
• Watch a video (an educational one, of course!)
• Anything else you can think of.
  • Yes, just about anything!

Doing:

• Volunteer: Do a Google search for something like “volunteer opportunities in (your city).” You’ll be amazed at all the opportunities available that you’ve never even heard of or known about — when I searched in my area I found opportunities that ranged from working with & training animals, to doing taxes, to being a “disaster mental health services” team member, to working with refugees, and the list goes on. Aside from Googling, you can also check out idealist.org or volunteermatch.org. Volunteering can not only help you figure out if a certain field is for you, but it can also put valuable experience under your belt and help you build relationships and establish contacts in the community.

• Take a Skillshare class: Skillshare classes are designed to help you “do” and to create a product or project rather than just learn:

• Get an internship: If you’re in college, ask your career center or the head of your department about internships. You can also discover a wealth of internships simply by Googling “Internships in (your city).” (Believe me– I just tried it!)

• Ask for an unofficial internship (even if there isn’t one advertised): If you want to learn what a profession is like and gain valuable experience and relationships, you can also consider creating an internship of your own at anyplace that interests you– free or paid. Be sure to mention (a) Why you want this experience — is there something in particular you want to learn? are you wondering if you want to go to school for this profession or work in this field? Do you know you want to work in this field but just need more experience? Let them know your reasoning; (b) What you have to offer — How will you help them? Be as specific as possible. If you have certain skills you can contribute or if there are certain areas you want to help with, let them know. It helps to have a specific objective in mind if possible.

• Offer to work for free, with the condition of paid work if they like what you’ve done: See Charlie Hoehn’s free e-book, Recession Proof Graduate for more info on this model. This is a “make your own position” type of thing and it works best for someone who is highly motivated, wants to work with the BEST in the field, and already has specific project-based skills (e.g., web design, video editing, marketing, etc.) that can be done remotely.

• Offer to work for pay: If you already have a skill, create your own position by showing an employer how you can help him or her with his/her goals, and ask for the job you created yourself. Maybe it’s just a few hours a week, or maybe it’s full time. What’s the worst that could happen if you asked?! (Note: Before trying this, make sure you don’t suck.)

• Start your own project: The Unlost was my own project that I decided to start on my own. My friend Matthew Pipkin started a nonprofit on his own, Speak Your Silence. My friend Erica Reis liked doing crafts at home and decided to put up an Etsy shop online where she sells her handmade wallets. Big or small, see if you can start your own project. You’ll gain valuable skills, and best of all, it’ll make you interesting so that you’ll have something to talk about with all the people you’ll be connecting with in the section below ;-).
  • Write a blog.
  • Start a side business (it doesn’t have to be big or major — think, selling cakes or services).
  • Start a nonprofit.
  • Create a video.
  • Paint. Draw. Create.
  • Host a cooking class.

• Join someone else’s project: Hear about someone else doing something cool? Ask if you can help them out or join them.
  • Ask if you can write a column or article for a local publication (it’d help to have a blog so you can show them writing samples– see above ;). (SIDENOTE: This is what I did after a month or two of writing blog posts on my own. No one knew who I was and I had never “officially” written anything before, but I went to Boise State University (I was an alumni), showed them my blog, and asked if I could write an article in their newspaper. A month later, I had my own column.) If you never ask, you’ll never know! What’s the worst that could happen?!
  • Ask a professor if you can help with interesting research.

• Do whatever makes you feel alive.
  • Sports
  • Yoga
  • Book clubs
  • Dancing
  • Rock climbing
  • Music
  • This stuff makes you YOU and it makes you INTERESTING!

• Anything else you can think of.
  • Yes, just about anything.

Connecting:

• Do an informational interview (highly recommended!): This may be one of the most powerful things you can do to build connections, form mentorships, and obtain inside information on whether a certain profession is really for you. I’ve put together an entire page of information for you right here about what informational interviews are and how to do them.

• Discover a mentor: Oftentimes, mentorships happen informally through informational interviews, by getting involved in the community, or through talking with professors, so if you want to find a mentor, I’d recommend participating in those activities. If you graduated from college, many schools have alumni mentorship programs — call up you career center and ask if they can connect you with an alumni.

• Join a club, group or organization:
  • If you’re in college, discover clubs and organizations on your campus by searching through the student organizations webpage, or call and ask.
  • Check out all the interesting groups in your area on Meetup.com.
  • Find a young professionals group in your area (I attend a group called “Boise Young Professionals” and I’ve made some great connections through this program).
  • Toastmasters is a nation wide public speaking club that I “experimented with” a few years back.
  • When in doubt, again turn to Google: Search for clubs, groups or organizations in your area and see if anything catches your interest.

• Attend a conference or event

• Anything else you can think of
  • Yes, just about anything!

So… have you brainstormed a list of ideas yet? Quick, write a bunch down on the “SOLO TWO” homework worksheet! No need to think too hard or overanalyze– in fact, sometimes you’ll be surprised at what you actually end up enjoying, if only you get out there are try it. (See Ryan Coelho’s interview in The Sweet Shop to hear the story of how  surprised he was to discover that he actually liked marketing and sales once he tried it (he’d always thought these areas weren’t for him.)

Sometimes you’ll also be surprised at who you end up meeting or what you end up discovering while doing these experiments– and where this ends up leading you– if only you go out there and try new things and meet new people.

Remember, it’s not about getting to Point D– it’s simply about getting to Point B. And once you try one experiment. you’ll already have momentum rolling in the right direction! It’ll get easier and easier each time, and each time you’ll learn more about yourself, expose yourself to more opportunity, and get new ideas to branch out on.

Promise.

Overcoming Stumbling Blocks

~Extra credit!~

Finally, as an optional extra credit “assignment,” if you want to double your chances of success in completing your first experiment, all you need to do this one simple, easy thing:

Make a plan to overcome your stumbling blocks.

That’s right: it’s been proven time and time again that the simple act of anticipating the obstacles that are likely to get in your way—and then making a detailed plan of what you’ll do upon encountering these stumbling blocks—will significantly improve the chances of reaching your goal.

In the book, The Power of Habit, author Charles Duhigg describes an experiment that was conducted regarding the recovery of elderly patients who’d had painful hip or knee replacement surgery:

“Recovering from a hip or knee surgery is incredibly arduous. The operation involves severing joint muscles and sawing through bones. While recovering, the smallest movements– shifting in bed or flexing a joint– can be excruciating. However, it is essential that patients begin exercising almost as soon as they awake form surgery. They must begin moving their legs and hips before the muscles and skin have healed, or scar tissue will clog the joint, destroying its flexibility… but the agony is so extreme that it’s not unusual for people to skip out on rehab sessions. Patients, particularly older ones, often refuse to comply with doctors’ orders.”

In the experiment, researchers gave the patients rehabilitation booklets in which they were asked to write out detailed goals for their recovery. The researches found that those who had written in their booklets about how they would overcome difficult “inflection points” began walking, on average, twice as fast as those patients who had not written out a plan.

Wrote Duhigg:

“A patient who met his wife at the bus stop dreaded the afternoons, because the stroll was the longest and most painful each day. So he detailed every obstacle he might confront, and came up with a solution ahead of time.

Put another way, the patients’ plans were built around inflection points when they knew their pain– and their temptation to quit– would be strongest. The patients were telling themselves how they were going to get over the hump.”

Similar studies have found similar results: planning ahead of time how you will deal with stumbling blocks can significantly improve the likelihood of success.

So if you want to significantly improve your chances of successfully completing your first experiment, all you have to do is think about what might get in the way of completion and write down a plan, in detail, about what you will do if this stumbling block occurs and how you will overcome it to complete your experiment.

For example, here’s an anticipated stumbling block I knew I’d come up against while creating the modules of this course (and my detailed plan to overcome said stumbling block):

Anticipated stumbling block: Spending time on other online activities such as email, Facebook, etc., without getting enough important work done for the course.

Detailed plan to overcome this stumbling block: Each morning, I will work offline and complete a section of the course content. I will do this before going online at all (even before checking email).

Anticipated stumbling block: Being tempted to go online despite my plan to complete work offline each morning.

Detailed plan to overcome this stumbling block: If I am tempted to go online despite my plan, I will go somewhere without an Internet connection to work.

This module’s homework document includes a special worksheet just for this (SOLO THREE worksheet) if you’d like to get in on the optional extra credit assignment– totally for your own benefit!

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Next: Time to get Move-lahing on your homework!