The Scientist Mindset
“Think like a scientist”
In the Beginning
Whenever you start something new—job, activity, habit, life phase, etc—you enter a place of learning. In that place, you don't know everything. Don’t feel bad or embarrassed by that! Instead, embrace that feeling of not knowing. Lean into it, accept it, own it, wear it. In fact, I encourage you to revel in it! Play that role fully. Ask all the questions you can and soak up all the knowledge and observations. Perform the actions of one who is soaking up knowledge, asking questions, trying things out, making mistakes, being an observer and a follower. You’ll acquire the mindset of a learner which will fuel your ability to develop and grow.
Experiment
Don’t stop at the learner phase: experiment. Try something and see how it works for you. Not the results you expected? No problem: try something else. Ideally a small tweak to help you refine the results until you know for sure what elements work and which don't.
Unlike me in the kitchen: I'm notorious for adapting recipes whenever I cook or bake. I substitute ingredients for ones I don’t have or don’t like, I combine several recipes into my own, and sometimes I omit ingredients or steps altogether. Sometimes purposefully, sometimes accidentally. And then there’s the muffin recipe I’m developing to suit my own habits and tastes: I’m always tweaking it. However, I don't just change one thing. I change several things every time. By changing many things, I never know which change is responsible for the improvement or deterioration of the results. Don't follow this approach!
It would be smarter for me to change one thing at a time, like a scientist changing one variable and controlling for all the others. I'd be smarter to change the baking temperature but keep the baking time and all the ingredients and quantities the same. Or keep the temperature consistent but adjust the time. Or, same temperature and time, but increase the quantity of flour. After each iteration, I should be recording my observations of the results then looking for patterns. This is not a cooking blog, however, so enough about my bad baking habits: let’s get back to you and your life.
When you’re looking for a change or improvement in an area of life, there may be occasions where you make a huge upheaval change. New job, new house, new person in your life. Those are important, but most of the time, we only want or need changes that are smaller and less monumental. In these times, it helps to think like a scientist.
Be a Scientist
Thinking like a scientist doesn't just apply to how you make tweaks or changes in conducting your experiments. It also applies to your attitude in performing the experiments. When a chemist’s experiment disproves their hypothesis, they don’t exclaim, “I failed!” or question their worth. Instead, they think about what happened and evaluate their procedure for missteps. They analyze their work, take notes, consult resources, adjust their approach, and try again. Similarly, the behavioural scientist says, “That's interesting” and looks again at the data to see if there's a correlation that they overlooked the first time. They don't cry out, “I'm a failure!” and abandon the whole endeavor. Neither should you.
Think like a scientist. As you approach your next challenge, what differences do you notice? Some of the differences may be obvious; others, subtle. Make all the observations you can about what’s working and what’s not. Track your observations in a way that works for you—whether it’s a journal, checklist, chart, or something else. Store your results concretely to prevent reliance on memory and instead apply your energy to making progress.
Once you’ve done a few iterations and collected some observations, you have data. It's not judgment of your worth; it's information. You get to decide how to use it and inform your next steps. Apply the lessons to help you get closer to your goal, whether that goal is perfectly baked cookies, an elegant casserole, or a new routine, activity, structure, or habit. Make another hypothesis and try again. This is how scientists work, and it’s how you can make adjustments in the context of your learning journey.
Experimenting with a Habit
If you've read my Journey to Journal post, you’ve read how I developed a habit of journalling immediately after my morning and evening yoga. Recently, I observed I had less tolerance for a cold shower in the morning. I wanted warmer water. “Huh, that’s interesting. I wonder what’s behind that?” the scientist in me asked. What other observations could I make? Well, when I have a late morning shower after errands and housework, I prefer a warm shower. What’s the connection? Aha! I hypothesized that after my yoga, my body is warm from the workout so I can handle a cold shower, but when I journal after yoga, I cool off by the time I get to the shower and want warmer water.
With this theory, I noted two choices: I could either have a warm shower or I could change the journalling habit. Confident that journalling is a habit now strongly linked to yoga and could be tweaked without falling apart, I decided to experiment: could I successfully journal BEFORE yoga? Then I’d maintain body heat to withstand the cold shower.
Aside: every reader out there is scratching their head wondering why I’m working so hard to have a cold shower when a warm or even a hot shower is so wonderful. It’s a fair question. Let’s tackle it in a postscript and stick with the experiment for now.
To begin this experimental switch from yoga+journal to journal+yoga, I started with an evening session because my brain is more alert then. No problems: I made the switch easily. The next morning, out of habit I started to turn on the TV for my yoga channel, then remembered my new plan and adjusted to journal first. Cold! I was cold sitting there with my open journal, something that had never happened before. It was more evidence that my body gets heated up from yoga. Good to know that at least part of my hypothesis was correct. I wrapped up in a blanket and prepared to write, but my brain wasn’t in gear yet; I was still sleepy and didn’t have any profound thoughts. So, I wrote about my experience and moved on to yoga. Once again, my shower was cold and invigorating!
Because the new habit of journal is rooted into yoga, a long-standing habit, it wasn’t difficult to make this little switch and sustain it. I’m still not fully awake enough to write substantial amounts before yoga, but providing prompts for myself and using the Hemingway strategy of not concluding the previous day’s writing is helping to get me started. I continue to experiment!
After all, learning is a process, and that’s part of the beauty of it.
Before moving on, take a moment to appreciate your grade nine science teacher. Send them a note of appreciation for teaching you the scientific method and for making you write lab reports. Because you've finally found the opportunity to use that school day lesson in “real life.”
To my QuinteCHS kids: you're welcome.
Post-Script about the cold shower
A cold shower is my version of the cold plunge. It’s not as harsh and requires no fancy tubs or trips to the lake. It gets my blood pumping and is very energizing. Plus, because it’s slightly uncomfortable, (an understatement,) I complete my shower routine quickly. A warm shower is so cozy, I tend to linger, which eats up more time. So, the cold shower does double duty in getting me on my way. Most mornings. I do still indulge in a warm shower every so often.