Every January, millions of people write down their goals for the year. By March, most have been abandoned. New goals are set in spring, and again in September—a cycle of fresh starts and self-blame. Anne-Laure Le Cunff, a former Google digital health executive turned neuroscientist, lived this cycle for years. Despite success by external measures, she felt like the Red Queen in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass: running just to stay in place.
The Problem with Goals
After retraining as a neuroscientist, Le Cunff understood why goals often fail. They work well under specific conditions—like buying a car that fits three kids and costs under £25,000—where the destination is known and the path clear. But for life's most important questions—career, relationships, health—the destination shifts as you grow. Clinging to a goal before understanding the question sets you up for frustration and self-blame.
The Experimental Mindset
Scientists embrace uncertainty by designing experiments to learn, regardless of outcome. Le Cunff calls this the 'experimental mindset.' Instead of asking 'Am I there yet?' you ask 'What can I learn?' This approach helps you try new things, pay attention to results, and change direction based on evidence. The life you build becomes yours, not a copy of someone else's blueprint.
Designing a Tiny Experiment
Start with observation. Spend 24 hours as an 'anthropologist of your own life,' noting what gives you energy, what drains it, and who you love talking to. From these observations, design a simple experiment: 'I will [action] for [duration].' No big commitments—just a tiny test.
Career Experiments
Work is high-stakes, but staying stuck is costly. Try small actions: 'I will spend 30 minutes a day reading newsletters,' 'I will block out one afternoon a week for deep creative work for a month,' or 'I will have three coffee chats with people in jobs I'm curious about this quarter.' Le Cunff's own experiment—writing a weekly newsletter for 20 weeks—led to a consulting business, an online community, and eventually her first book.
Relationship Experiments
Patterns in relationships can calcify without intention. Test changes: replace a weekly catchup call with an activity together for six weeks, or contact one lost friend each week for a month. For romantic relationships, a friend of Le Cunff ran experiments—singles events, friend introductions, different apps—framing each as learning opportunities rather than pass-or-fail auditions. He discovered he valued honest conversation over impressive credentials.
Health Experiments
Wellness is saturated with one-size-fits-all goals like 10,000 steps or eight glasses of water. The experimental mindset reframes health: instead of adopting others' definitions, run experiments to find what works for your body. Even training for a marathon benefits from this approach—testing nutrition, fatigue management, and training response. 'I will exercise in the morning instead of the evening for two weeks' or 'I will cut out processed food for a month' yield personal data over time.
Conclusion
Le Cunff's book, Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World, published by Profile at £10.99, offers a framework for living experimentally. As she writes, 'The life you end up building is yours, not a copy-paste of someone else's blueprint for success.'
