Experimenting with Work

You don't have to figure it all out at once

Before you start reading, I encourage you to give your body space to move. Wiggle. Stretch. Breath deeply. Relax your shoulders. Anything to signal to your body that it can rest, even if just for a few moments.

✺

For most of my adult life, I’ve been trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up. Every new role and every side project felt like it might finally be the thing that would allow everything to click into place.

Lately, something different has been happening. Instead of searching for the next thing, I’ve been looking backward.

Over the past few months, I’ve been revisiting old workshops, blog posts, speaking engagements, consulting projects, and even ideas I abandoned. I have been looking for something, anything that connects everything. Because I truly believe that, as my mentor says all the time, “Nothing is wasted.”

After gently reviewing and reflecting, I found it.

Whether I was doing self-care retreats, facilitating leadership conversations, coaching entrepreneurs, teaching students, or designing community experiences, I was always helping people create space. Space to rest. Space to think. Space to reflect. Space to reconnect with themselves. Space to imagine. That is the thread! It feels so good to see that I wasn’t randomly pursuing anything in my professional life.

Finally finding that clarity made me want to go faster.

As soon as the idea became clearer, I caught myself wanting to package it immediately. Cause we are bombarded with things that tell us to build the offer, finalize the messaging, figure out the pricing, and launch. There is no shortage of voices telling us that once clarity arrives, speed should follow.

You know what, though? It didn’t feel like I was ready to go faster.

What if clarity isn’t an invitation to rush? What if it’s an invitation to become more curious?

I am learning in real time that there is still an important stage between discovering an idea and delivering it to the world. The bridge between these stages is experimentation.

Instead of frantically building a polished suite of services, I’ve been giving myself permission to try different kinds of work and notice what energizes me.

This month that looks like partnering with an incredible health practitioner who wants to expand her speaking career into new audiences. Together we’re exploring how her experience translates across industries and how she can communicate her message in ways that feel authentic.

It also looks like working with an author who has carried a children’s book idea in her notebook for years. We’re refining her manuscript, exploring illustration possibilities, identifying organizations that could support her work, and mapping out publishing paths that fit her goals.

I know on the surface these projects don’t look the same or seem completely aligned with what I have done in the past.

If you look more closely, they are very similar, though. In both cases, I’m helping someone create enough space to move from possibility to clarity without forcing the process.

Experimenting with work isn’t delaying my future. It’s allowing me to generate income while giving an emerging vision enough room to bloom. It’s showing me the kinds of conversations I want to have, the problems I love helping people solve, and the patterns that keep appearing regardless of the industry or project.

I am choosing experimental over polished.

This version of me is paying attention instead of performing, and that feels so good in my body, heart, and mind.

If you’re in a season of transition or standing at the end of something that once defined you, I hope you’ll give yourself permission to experiment.

Experimentation isn’t starting over. It’s giving your mind, your heart, and your experiences enough time to assemble themselves into something only you could create.

It might start as a conversation, a small project, or an idea that you can’t get out of your head.

Before you rush to build the next thing, ask yourself:

Is this season of my life calling me to experiment?

I’d love to know: What are you experimenting with right now? Leave a comment or hit reply to share what you’re discovering.

✺

Sending love and gratitude to Shantera, Sherri, Temara, Tina, Shoshana, and Carol for supporting my work as paid subscribers.