@bnt on Money #3: Experimenting Your Way To Riches

Thanks for checking out my third essay on Steemit! All feedback is welcome, appreciated and WILL be upvoted!

On this essay I will talk about how you can and should be experimenting your way to wealth

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It's been said that experimentation is the basis of all progress. The deeper I go into my journey, the more I've come to agree with that statement. There's been a lot of situations where experimentation would have made things easier for me, but I refused to go through the process. And every time that happened, I felt like it was a mistake.

Looking at a situation from different angles and approaching it in different ways is a surefire way to find out what works. This works for virtually all situations and purposes.

Experimentation doesn't have to be an exotic concept that you don't know how to approach. In practice, experimentation is nothing more than trying out a new thing, new approach or new mindset. I also think that "new" is the reason why people, in general, don't experiment more. We like the status quo and if we don't voluntarily have to disrupt it, we generally don't.

It's easy for us to reject experimentation as a viable path for numerous reasons. The biggest and most common one is fear of the unknown. Humans as a species are generally adamant of change. The one thing we often forget is that changes and experiments do not have to be permanent. In fact, they're very often quick and painless.

Another wonderful thing about experimentation is that it minimizes the need for filtering things. As we go through a lot of experiences and alternatives, our minds will inevitably drift to those that we have a positive feeling for. Experimenting will almost always leave you with a sense of completeness and satisfaction. The reason is logical: you've tried everything or nearly everything that you could to settle a conflict, get something done, accomplish a goal or accommodate a need that you have.

A personal example of experimentation could come from my musical taste. Listening to different artists in different genres has allowed me to discover what my musical preference profile looked like so that I could foster it and enjoy listening to music even more. But that's not all, I noticed that there are artists or songs that I liked in substantially more genres that I initially thought would be the case. My musical borders were expanded and I was that much better off for it.

It's common practice to find out what we have access to early in life and pick something quickly from there, then settle for and defend that thing until our dying breath. The commonality of this approach is not a testament for its effectiveness, however. It's only proof of our scarcity-based mindset.

But you don't have to do that if you don't want to. If there's just one aspect of your life that you feel could be better, experiment your way to satisfaction. You'll know what you like when you experience it. Always.

Ironically enough, using experimentation often means you don't have to diversify as much. How come? Well, since you're finding a fit for a need or a solution to a problem, experimenting within a specific vertical can also mean you'll go deep inside it and will likely find what you're looking for within that vertical, which somewhat appeases shinny object syndrome. Yes, you can and should change the approach, but the goal should stay the same.

In that same vein, I would like to advocate for contained experimentation as opposed of being all over the place. If you guessed that I'm going to mention planning, in the words of the immortal Walter White...

At times, planning and experimentation could seem to be at odds with each other. That is not the case. In actuality, they complement each other quite nicely. I'm not advocating taking every approach possible, no one has the time or resources to do that. Just because there's 100 ways to skin a cat doesn't mean you should skin it 100 times.

What you should do then, is to take a step back after each experiment to see what your options are. The previous step will determine the next step. See in how many ways you could approach the situation in question, see if the last approach could carry any leverage into the next one and then determine what's most convenient. Materializing your best next approach is the immediate step forward.

Another thing that I like about experimentation is that, by definition, it defies convention and invites boundary-breaking. In other words, everything is impossible until it isn't. Constant experimentation, practice and refinement will break any boundary. After a while, you'll use this same framework of experimentation for all aspects of your life and the benefits that you will get can be astounding. Just be reminded that there has to be a purpose behind every experiment and that they must be conducted carefully and intelligently.

One thing to watch out for is illusory lack of resources. As you lay out what your experiments could potentially be, take a good hard look at what resources you really have, material or otherwise. You'll find that, on average, we underestimate the length of the reach we could have if we use just a little bit of creativity in our planning process. So, whatever it is you need to do, you likely already have all you need, it's just hiding in plain sight.

The number of things that you and I could be doing with our lives is staggering and only getting bigger, so if you're gonna be experimental within the context of a profession, you must find an activity that you'll want to dedicate a good portion of your life to. Go through the process I laid out in this article, determine your activity and experiment in a smart and orderly fashion.

Do not think that I'm not advocating settling for a lifestyle that you're particularly fond of and enjoy constantly. What I am saying is that you should not rest until you find out what that looks like and then subsequently obtain it. Don't settle until you're absolutely, positively and confidently sure that what you're settling for is what you want. Foregoing experimentation is the path to misery.

TL;DR:

• If you're not wealthy, experiment with everything until you are.
• Don't settle until it's time to settle.
• Constant improvement is made faster through experimentation;trial and error.

Thank you SO MUCH for reading this all the way through. I'd be thrilled if you could help me out by following me and/or if you could spare 2 minutes to share what your thoughts on my piece are... I'll love you forever!