POSITIVE EVALUATION

If the evaluation of your experiment was positive, simply ask yourself the following question:

Do I want to build on this and take it further?

>>IF YOUR ANSWER IS YES:<<

If the answer is “yes,” you’ll know it. Even if it’s small, you’ll feel some sort of a drive for progress, some sort of a curiosity or an itch, tugging at you. This was the spark that drove me when I began writing The Unlost. I wanted to do more– to see where it could take me (or where I could take it!).

If you feel this sort of a drive, however small, to take things further, then your next step is to follow up and branch out on your initial experiment.

How can I do more of this in any way possible?

EXAMPLES:

Branching out on a Positive Evaluation

Here are some examples of branching out and evolving after a positive evaluation with a “drive for progress:”

My Own Example

After my initial experiment (writing The Unlost blog), here were some of the ways I followed up and branched out with new experiments:

• I asked to write for the Boise State University Newspaper. I went into the Boise State University student media office, told them I had a “blog to help young people find direction,” and asked if I could write an article for their soon-to-be-graduates.”The only writing spots we have for non-students are columnist spots,” the editor told me. She took a look and my writing samples and said, “Would you like to write a weekly column? We don’t pay columnists, but we’d be happy to have you write.””I’ll take it,” I said.
• I went to the World Domination Summit Conference to meet likeminded people and to build relationships.
• I reached out to other bloggers (i.e., Jenny Blake at Life After College and Lori DeSchene at Tiny Buddha) and asked if I could write guest posts on their blogs.
• I then evaluated each of these experiments and if my evaluation was positive, I repeated the process, branching out and evolving from there.

Drew Tarvin’s Example

Consider the story of my friend Drew Tarvin. His current pursuit came about through the evolutionary process, and it all started with a successful small experiment: writing humorous emails to his coworkers.

Drew started off as a project manager at a Fortune 500 company. In Drew’s spare time, he found that one thing that brought him alive was humor: he participated in improv groups after work and was most himself when he was helping others relax and laugh.

Rather than trying to jump straight from Point A (project management) to Point D (a career involving humor), Drew simply started integrating aliveness factors into his current work in any way possible. He enjoyed helping others relax, laugh, and lighten up. He recognized that humor not only improved his experience, but actually helped him be more productive at work.

As a small experiment, Drew began signing his emails with humorous signatures. He took initiative and volunteered to teach humor workshops in the office as a way to help de-stress employees and contribute to their well-being.

Before he knew it, he was teaching these workshops regularly and they became a part of his job responsibilities (along with his regular project management duties, of course). He quickly became known as the unofficial “office humorist.”

With this experience under his belt, it was a natural outgrowth for him to begin doing the same for other corporate clients, and he began hosting workshops — side gigs, if you will. Today, he does workshops, keynote speaking, and one-on-one coaching for corporations, college universities, and non-profits on how to use humor to improve the workplace experience (see his website, Humor That Works).

Here’s what’s most notable about Drew’s story: he didn’t try to jump straight from Point A to Point D (and when he first started integrating humor into his workplace, he didn’t even know exactly what Point D looked like). He didn’t have some “grand plan” to do what he’s doing now, and yet he got there nonetheless– he evolved his way there, and he did it by taking small and incremental steps to integrate his aliveness into what he was already doing. Over time, his small exploratory steps grew and evolved into a full-grown tree.

Once again, allow me to reiterate: even if Drew had known this was what he wanted to do, he never would have had the experience, the credibility or the competence to do so unless he’d taken this route. Without the experience he gained at his current workplace and the integration of the two worlds of business and humor, it would’ve been a tough sell.

Olivia’s Example

Olivia, a high school student, discovered her passion for studying the migration patterns of horseshoe crabs not by planning it from the beginning (because who ever would’ve even thought of studying horseshoe crabs? Talk about something you’d miss out on by simply Googling for careers!), but by experimenting and then branching out and evolving.

When a marine biology class captured Olivia’s interest (experimentation), she branched out further and allowed a new pursuit to emerge by asking a local marine biologist if she could volunteer at his lab during the summer for free (evolution)— he said yes, and she began helping out with menial tasks. The following summer he offered her a paid position, and her duties were upgraded to helping study the migration patterns of horseshoe crabs (further evolution). For Olivia, she found that this pursuit passed the Saturday-morning test: her idea of relaxation became inseparable from reading biology books and studying horseshoe crabs.

Now here’s the thing: if Olivia had simply looked down a list of “interests” or career paths to pursue, she never could have imagined that she’d be interested in studying horseshoe crabs— and even if she HAD somehow known this, she would have had no idea where to start in order to pursue this interest.

Instead, she started by using her free time and initiative to explore the opportunities already at hand and then followed up on the opportunity when she found that it captured her interest, allowing it to evolve from a small branch into a well-formed tree.

>>IF YOUR ANSWER IS NO:<<

On the other hand, sometimes even though our experiments will be “successful” and our evaluations are positive, we might not want to take them any further. Sometimes we’re content in simply continuing an activity as is and there is no compelling drive for progress.

If you don’t find yourself with the drive to follow up on a successful experiment, this is a good sign that the activity at hand is an indirect source of energy.

In this case, there’s no need for evolution.

You can continue this activity as an indirect source of energy, but rather than following up on it, start back at Point A with a new experiment.

Example:

Using a positive evaluation as indirect leverage

My own Example: Yoga

Last spring, one of my experiments was to try yoga. I really liked yoga and it passed my evaluation test– but I didn’t have a drive to take things any further than going to class a handful of times per week. I didn’t want to learn to teach yoga or become a hardcore yogi. In other words, I found that yoga was an indirect source of energy for me.

In this case I’ll continue doing yoga, but rather than allowing this pursuit to directly evolve by following up on it and branching out, I’ll start back at Point A and try a new experiment (if I want to, I can pick from the pool of ideas that I came up with while brainstorming within my Module 4 homework). I’ll use the energy that yoga gives me it as leverage for trying new experiments.

I can also use the “Whos,” “Wheres,” “Qualities,” etc., of yoga to help guide me in choosing a new experiment. Is it the WHO of who I’m doing yoga with that make me feel alive? If so, how can I be around more people like this? Is it the QUALITIES of yoga– silence, calm, focus– that make me feel most alive? If yes, how can I experience more of these qualities? I can use this heightened awareness of my aliveness factors to continue to guide my choice of experiments.

NEGATIVE EVALUATION

If the evaluation of your experiment was negative, you go back to Point A and try a new experiment.

Experiment, experiment, experiment! (Again, you can always can pick from the pool of ideas that you came up with while brainstorming within your Module 4 homework if you’d like to.)

IF YOU AREN’T SURE HOW TO FOLLOW UP ON YOUR EXPERIMENT:

If you want to continue to evolve on and to branch out from your experiment but you aren’t sure how, you might try one of the following two approaches:

1. Ask someone. 

“I tried [XYZ] and I really enjoyed it. I want to expand on this and take it further, but I’m not sure how. Do you have any ideas of things I could do or do you know of any related opportunities?”

2. Examine your aliveness compass.

Consider using the “Whos,” “Wheres,” “Qualities,” etc., of your initial experiment to help guide you in choosing a follow-up experiment. For example, if I noticed that the WHO of my initial experiment made me feel most alive, then I might ask, “How can I interact with and be around even more people like this? If it’s the QUALITIES of my initial experiment that make me feel most alive– competence, passion, helping others– then I might ask, “How can I experience more of these qualities?” I can use this heightened awareness of my aliveness factors to continue to guide my choice of follow-up experiments.

YOUR MODULE 5 HOMEWORK