Brian Johnson explains why treating your actions as experiments beats trusting they'll work. When you test instead of trust, failure becomes neutral data you learn from, not a personal rejection. Steve Chandler calls this the difference between two mindsets.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another micro class. This one is on experiments. Testing versus Trusting. This is a big idea inspired by In a micro class, inspired by Steve Chandler's crazy good testing versus trusting. Steve walks us through 15 different choices in his book subtitle A Book of Choices. He says, life is all about choices. It's not about anything mysterious. You don't need to go to therapy for years or decades. You need to start making better choices right now. And 15 of them he walks us through. I'm speaking like Yoda, and one of them is testing versus Trusting. He says, look, too many of us need to trust ourselves. Once I've got it all figured out and I can trust everything that it's all perfect, then I'll do it. He says, good luck with that. What you want to do is develop a testing mindset. A testing mindset is this guy. I've drawn this guy, or gal, depending on your gender, right? Who's got his goggles on. He's got a lab coat on, right? And he's got a little clipboard in his hand and a pen in this hand. And he's testing things. He's an experimenter. Every single thing that this person does is a test. It's not a measure of his self worth and whether he's okay and whether he can trust himself in his life. It's a test. And Steve says experiments never fail because you just get data. And this experimenter is looking at data. It's neutral. So something works. That's awesome. If it doesn't work, that's awesome. It shows him or her what doesn't work. Experiments never fail. We want to test things, things in our lives rather than wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. And trust. This is similar to our ready, fire, aim. Right. We don't want to aim, aim, aim. Aim, Aim. Let me get my trust totally dialed down. Aim. Aim. Aim. Aim. Aim. And then finally, fire. Ready, fire. Aim. Okay, cool. You're a little bit off the mark. Here was your bullseye. You showed up. Oops, not even on the radar. Fix it. Fire again. Okay, you're testing. You're experimenting with life. That's the attitude we want to develop. It's the hallmark of healthy, happy, successful people. They fail more, but all they do is see it as data. They get back up and do a little better the next time. That incremental improvement is what leads to extraordinary success when compounded over time. I sent Steve a lab coat and goggles and he actually talked about that in the book in one of his little mini chapters. He talked about me a little bit and said that I sent him goggles and a lab coat. Remember that anytime you're feeling stressed and you're taking something personal or you're getting too emotional, put on your metaphorical or your real goggles and lab coat. And remember you're an experimenter. Testing and getting data and getting a little bit better. Here's to optimizing and actualizing as we experiment. Hope you enjoyed. Look forward to sharing more. Have another awesome day. See ya. Isn't it a bit odd we went from math to science to history but somehow missed the class on how to live? For some wacky reason, optimal living 101 never made the schedule. Of course, it's too late to go back and change that and you're too busy to read full time to catch up yet. If you're like us, you're all about optimizing your life and actualizing your potential. So imagine this. Imagine having someone read the best books on optimal living and pulling out the big ideas that can truly change your life. You know those sections you asterisk and underline and mark all up. Then imagine that guy me connecting those ideas to other great books and helping you apply them to your life today. Well, that's what I do with something we call Philosopher's Notes where I break down each great book into a simple 6 page PDF, 20 minute MP and 10 minute Philosopher's Notes TV episode. Then imagine me taking the absolute best big ideas from those great books and sharing them with you in fun, inspiring, super practical optimal living 101 classes on stuff like purpose 101, confidence 101 business 101 meditation 101, that sort of thing. You've got a personal trainer? I'm kind of like your personal philosopher. Ancient Wisdom plus Modern Science plus Common Sense plus Virtue plus Mastery plus Fun. That's what our Optimized membership program is all about. We'd love to have you join us. Check us out at BrianJohnson. Me join.
