Experiments
Talk is cheap.
Essential to Raptitude is the idea of experimentation. Concepts and insights can be useful and encouraging, but it is the application of those ideas that effect big improvements in one’s life. It can be very revealing (and fun) to try on a new habit or technique for a week or two (or four), and observe the results.
I will conduct experiments in my own life and post my observations and conclusions. I would love to hear about your experiments too.
All Raptitude experiments will be listed here.
Raptitude Experiment No. 1 — Sharpening the Mind
In this experiment I attempt to engage in formal sitting meditation every day for thirty days. I’ve meditated many times before, but not in a disciplined stretch like this. Will I become the Buddha, or succumb to the restless monkey mind?
Result in a nutshell: I struggled. I was not ready for meditation. Not willing. But that didn’t prevent me from making some very revealing discoveries…
View experiment log no. 1 – View final report
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Raptitude Experiment No. 2 — Strength, Soviet Style
In this experiment, I employ a low-tech Russian implement, the kettlebell, to see what sort of improvements I can make to my physique in six short weeks. Will I achieve world domination, or will the kettlebell crush me under its ironclad boot?
Result in a nutshell: I did make considerable strides in my six weeks, but an injury and a peculiar internal resistance staved off miraculous results. Still, I was quite proud of myself. There is a before/after picture in the final report.
View experiment log no. 2 – View final report
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Raptitude Experiment No. 3 — 30 Days Without Drugs
In this experiment, I attempt to throw off the cultural shackles of casual drug use, notably alcohol and caffeine. Will I stand sober and self-assured amidst the crowds of tipsy twenty-somethings, or will I find I don’t belong anymore?
Result in a nutshell: Changed my life forever. Completely altered the way my mind and body respond to drugs, and now I’m free of virtually all negative effects of my casual drug usage. I am in love with the sober, base-state and my body doesn’t let me forget it.
View experiment log no. 3 – View final report
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Raptitude Experiment No. 4 — Defensive Eating
In this experiment, I set out to renegotiate my relationship to food and lose the “spare tire” that has formed during this summer’s ice cream binges. Eating with care and mindfulness, I vow to no longer eat to the point of sluggishness, and to hit the kettlebells again. Will I deliver a fit and strong David to New Zealand this fall, or will I slip quietly back to “almost healthy?”
Result in a nutshell: I did eventually slip back to “almost healthy.” I found that social and cultural factors play a HUGE role in how, what and how much I eat. You too probably. Some interesting discoveries in the progress log.
View experiment log no. 4 – View final report
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Raptitude Experiment No. 5 — 21 Days Without Complaining
In this experiment, I aim to eliminate the habit of casual negativity using a simple method pioneered by a Missouri minister. The experiment will be over when I’ve gone 21 consecutive days without complaining, disparaging or gossiping. It will probably take a lot longer than 21 days. Will I achieve a state of total non-negativity forevermore? Or will I finally collapse into a heap of cursing and bitterness?
Result in a nutshell: Well I did it, without compromise. I effectively killed my impulse to complain. But I found it strangely dissatisfying, and I developed a rather negative view of the whole “Complaint Free World” idea. This is an interesting one.
View experiment log no. 5 – View final report
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Raptitude Experiment No. 6 – Logging Everything I Do, All Day For a Week
In this experiment, I track everything I do that takes time — which is everything. With the ultimate goal of dismantling unproductive habits, I aim to find out exactly how much of my time is invested in getting the things I want, and how much is slipping through the cracks. Will this trigger a personal productivity revolution, or simply expose the bad habits that have me at their mercy?
Result in a nutshell: I completed it as planned. More than anything I learned that productivity is not so much what you do, but where your mind is when you do it. I also learned that laundry only takes twelve minutes, not the 90 I previously thought, and much more.
View experiment log no. 6 – View final report
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Raptitude Experiment No. 7 – Establishing Meditation as a Habit For Life
In this experiment, I return to meditation with the tenacity of one hand clapping. Meditation has revealed itself to me as an indispensable ingredient to a healthy psyche, and it’s time to make it an everyday thing for me. Will I sit at the centre of the universe as often as I eat breakfast, or will I continue to act as if it just isn’t important enough to earn a steady place in my schedule?
Result in a nutshell: Terminated prematurely. I was forced to delay the experiment while I traveled because I could never depend on having a suitable meditation spot, and now that I’m home I do not have the same desire to meditate I did back in Australia. It will come back, but until then it will stick to active mindfulness instead of sitting meditation.
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Raptitude Experiment No. 8 – Five New Habits at Once, Made Possible by Low Standards
In this experiment, I attempt to overturn the conventional wisdom that multiple concurrent habit changes are doomed to fail. My secret weapon is ridiculously low standards, allowing me to hit my mark every day in every habit, for a month straight. Will I master the Art of Showing Up, or will my long-running self-sabotage habit prevail?
Result in a nutshell: Aborted! Two in a row now. The principle really backfired for me, for reasons explained in the experiment log. Check it out below.
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Raptitude Experiment No. 9 — A Place for Everything
In this experiment I resolve to get rid of everything that I am not prepared to use and give a permanent place to in my home. I’m going room-to-room, closet-to-closet, box-to-box, and when I’m done, I will have no stuff, only things. Will I strip down to my minimalist skivvies, or drown in ugly clothes and cracked jewel cases?
Result in a nutshell: Well look at that, I live in a tidy house now. Reversed 30 years of clothes-on-the-floor living, and gained some other benefits I didn’t expect. Check out the final report below.
View experiment log no. 9 – View final report
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Raptitude Experiment No. 10 — Vegan for 30 days
In this experiment I resolve to eat a vegan diet for 30 days. No meat, dairy or other animal products. I will also refrain from knowingly buying any non-food animal products but this experiment is primarily about diet. I want to see what happens in my body, my mind, and my social life as a result of this rather “alternative” lifestyle. Will I grow stronger and steadier on a plants-only diet, or will I wilt like spinach in the microwave?
Result in a nutshell: Smashing success. Not only did I change my diet, but my philosophy and lifestyle. I am now a vegan.
View experiment log no. 10 – View final report
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Raptitude Experiment No. 11 — An Attack on Procrastination
In this experiment I resolve to dislodge my lifelong procrastination habit by committing to certain regulatory behaviors for 37 days. I’m allowed to goof off if I really, but only if I’ve consciously decided to goof off. No blind avoidance. Will I conquer the beast of procrastination, or will I end up putting this off until next month?
Result in a nutshell: Mixed results. I didn’t cure procrastination, but I am much more aware of it now and I can’t let myself get away with too much of it.
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Raptitude Experiment No. 12 — 1000 words a day
In this experiment I attempt to transform my lopsided writing habits so that I write a modest amount every day, rather than do it all on one or two days of the week. One thousand words a day, every day, for 30 days. Will I become a consistent, prolific wordsmith, or remain a literary weekend warrior?
Result in a nutshell: Happening right now. Check the experiment log below.
Photo by ArtemFinland
I'm David and Raptitude is a street-level look at the human experience -- what makes human beings do what they do, and what that means in real life.
I write about how to make sense of the earth's most ridiculous animal, how to get better at being one of them, and how only those two things can save the world. 
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