The 2 week career experiment
About taking action, engaging your brain and the joy of a good (short) deadline
It seems to be one of the hardest things: taking action.
The other day I was on a call, and that’s exactly what someone said: ‘I have this idea that I should pull together all my knowledge, set up my website and start sharing my knowledge with others …’
<cue someone staring wistfully into the distance, to then follow up with … >
‘But I haven’t.
Not yet. Wanting to do something is only half the battle.’
It’s true. I see it to be true, when I talk to you in my Career Freedom programme too.
Because when we come to the ‘experimentation’ (or ‘playing’) step in the programme, where you get to experiment and ‘test’ the career ideas that you’ve come up with, this happens:
Hesitation - What will people think? I haven’t got all my ducks in a row! I might look silly! (Errrr, yep, you WON’t have all your ducks in a row. That’s the POINT of an experiment. To figure out if what you’re testing is actually what you want to do. To figure out if what you want to do will actually work. You’re searching, you’re finding out, you’re not sure yet. And that’s fine).
Making the experiment too big - ‘For me to figure out if I want to do this, I need to take a 3 month sabbatical, at LEAST, to really immerse myself in this new world, take up a short job, or volunteer. But in my current job I can’t do that. So now I’m stuck’ (Do you? Need to take that 3 month sabbatical, I mean? What other way is there? Because there IS another way. There always is.)
Helplessness dressed up as reality - ‘Everyone knows that this thing I want to do is not feasible!’ (Do we? Does everyone? Can you show me what you’ve tried already that might have led to you having this conviction? Oh, nothing? Ri-I-I-I-I-got.).
The ‘no time’ excuse - You’ve got no TIME! Your day is literally CRAMMED from dawn to dusk. Work-eat-sleep-repeat, that’s you. Experimenting? ‘Actually TALKING to people? DOING stuff? Changing stuff?’, you say, ‘When? When, I ask you!’ (Except - and I’m just going to say it - you DO have time! In the time you’re scrolling through your social media feed, you could - instead - send an email, have a phone call, write an outline for your new website. Those times you spend watching Netflix? Check your LinkedIn? Scroll through Instagram? Yep. You could use that time to … Anyway, you get what I’m saying).
Taking action can be the hardest thing. Not because the action-taking is so hard, but because we get in our own way.
So I thought I’d dedicate a newsletter to doing just that. To taking action, so that it becomes EASY. To taking action, because you WANT to. To taking action, because it’s harder NOT to.
With short experiments.
1. Knowing what you want to change
So, let’s start here. This person I was talking to? Was VERY clear what he wanted to achieve. He wanted to set up a website and share what he learned with others.
You - however - might not be that clear. Yet.
You might feel slightly unsettled. Not quite unhappy, but definitely not happy either.
You may know where you feel unhappy but feel powerless or scared to do anything about it. Or not know what you WANT to do about it.
You may have decided long ago that what you WANT is impossible/unrealistic/silly.
This is an important step … but if you are NOT clear and feel you’re getting stuck on this step, then scroll straight down to the bottom of this email, to step #5.
2. Write yourself a prompt
ChatGPT and I have been in a continuous conversation over the last few months. We’ve been talking about my business, about where to go next with it. It’s been enlightening, and it’s going to lead to changes in my business next year.
What I’ve found, though, is that the best answers come from the best questions. Or should I say prompts.
So, let’s give yourself a prompt. And - like AI - let’s make the prompt as specific as possible.
Not ‘What will make my work and life feel meaningful?’ (because - news flash - your brain can’t answer that without more information. It’s too big a question. It’s why you’ve been struggling to answer that question, I can just imagine).
No, instead, I’d like you to be really specific:
‘What can I do to ‘test’ if I can make money with my art’
‘How can I find out more about a career in … (fill in the blanks)’
‘Who can I speak to to get more information about …’
‘How can I try out XXX job, so that I can discover if the work that I envisage to be a joy, is actually as good as I currently envisage it to be’
Roll that question around your brain for a minute. Is your brain giving you a big ‘No, don’t get it’? Does it provide you with a great big blank page and question marks? Then the question isn’t right yet. Your prompt needs to be more specific, the task needs to be broken down further.
3. Envision what you’ll get from the experiment
Experiments are FUN. They are playful, they’re lighthearted, they’re great ways of getting to know other people.
You know why experiments are fun?
Because there literally is no right or wrong to them. You can’t fail.
I’ll say it again, so your brain can hear it: You. Cannot. Fail.
If the experiment was a resounding success, then brilliant! You can now consider your next step.
If it wasn’t, you will have learned one of two things:
That you still love what you want to do - but *may* have gone the wrong way about it
That you actually no longer love the idea - which is great news, because now you can put the idea out of your head
Either way you win, right?
What helps though, is to be clear, up front, what you want out of your experiment. What do you want to have at the end of it? For what reason do you want to do this experiment?
Create as clear a picture in your mind. Define what clarity and success looks like for you. Get excited about doing it and what you’ll get as a result. So that you want to do it. So that it becomes something you can’t NOT do.
4. Make it inevitable
I’m going to turn all James Clear on you for a moment (him of ‘Atomic Habits’ fame). In his book James Clear says that you’re more likely to take action, if you’re making it inevitable.
If you want to go running, then put your running shoes there where you put your feet down first thing in the morning. If you want to play guitar then don’t shut your guitar away behind the vacuum cleaner in the understairs cupboard, but instead put it there where you will pick it up.
So, how can you make YOUR experiment inevitable? What little step can you invent that makes it easy and inevitable for you to take your first step? And the next one after that?
5. Take action, no matter how small
Did you get stuck on step 1? Not knowing what you want to change?
Yes? Great to see you here! This step is for you, as much as it is for the others.
You see, I’m a great believer in action. In taking action. No matter how small.
So for you? For those of you who haven’t a clue what needs to change?
I’d like you to define THAT as your experiment:
What can you do to get clearer on what’s wrong? What can you do to identify the pain points? It might be to make a long long list. It might be to go for a walk with a friend and ask her to just listen to your woes (crucially without offering solutions). Any step that gets you clearer.
And then - what is the smallest step you can you take to identify what you can do about that? So now we’re flipping the script. Now you know what’s bothering you, what (small) action can you take right now?
So that you can get started on YOUR mini-experiment.
For those of you who ARE clear on what you want:
Identify the smallest, easiest, most logical step you can take next.
Is your brain throwing up objections, or sending signals of confusion? Go back to the drawing board and break that action down further. (Sometimes your brain’s refusal to take action comes from the action being too big, too soon. Breaking it down further, or clarifying it further makes it easier for you to get going).
6. Make it snappy
Remember I called this article the ‘2 week career experiment’?
I did that for a reason.
Because there’s literally nothing like a good deadline. A quick deadline. A deadline that bolts you into action.
There’s also nothing better than to fail fast. If your experiment tells you that what you THOUGHT was a great thing, isn’t, you’d like to know that earlier rather than later, right? You’d like to fail fast, so that you can move on. You’d like to fail fast, before you spent days, weeks, months and potentially money, time and resources into this thing-that-you-now-know-you-don’t-want-to-do.
‘If I was coaching you right now’, I said to the person who wanted to set up his own website, after he told me he loved a good deadline, ‘I’d ask you to set your deadline’. What I should have said is ‘What is your deadline for a great first experiment?’
Instead I’ll ask you instead: What is your deadline for a first great experiment? (And no, it can’t be ‘next March sometime. Maybe, probably.’).
Next steps
I love a good experiment. I blame my 1/3 Investigator/Martyr profile, that taught me that I learn best by trial and error.
But experimenting is also a sound strategy to quickly rule out/try out ideas you’ve had. Ideas that might be feasible … or not. Ideas that might sound fun … but may turn out not to be. Ideas that made sense at the time … but you can quickly dispense with after having trialled it.
And yes, ‘testing’ your career ideas is a key part of my Career Freedom private coaching programme for exactly that reason.
So, it’s roughly 3 weeks to Christmas when I write this. Two by the time you read it. What experiments can YOU conduct in the next two weeks?
I’d LOVE to hear! Speak soon!
Tineke X
P.S. Experimenting with your career ideas, TESTING your career ideas, is part of Step 4 of my Career Freedom coaching programme (did I mention that?).
But before we get to that step, we go through a structured examination of who you are, and of what you want. And we will generate a number of career ideas.
So if you want help with getting clear on your career direction, then your very first small step is to book a call with me, by using the great big red button below.
P.S.2 Do you know that you don’t have to sign up to the full Career Freedom programme to start getting the benefit of working with me? I now also offer flexible coaching packages, for those of you wanting to take that first step - without committing fully.
Find out more about my flexible coaching packages here:
Interesting reads here on Substack
(as read in my Substack notes):
Aging out of fucks: the neuroscience of why you suddenly can’t pretend anymore
My key moments at work: Your 10 career defining moments
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Tineke Tammes is a Creative Career & Life Guide for Midlife Women | I help you redesign your next chapter with storytelling, strategy and courage
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