Are you experimenting enough?

Hey 1,270+ friends, it’s Hannah here from Quoted Visually!

Welcome to another issue of Floating Thoughts where I share an insight, image and personal update. I am developing a course to help you visualise ideas💡

“I am not stopping until the job is done”

We can put so much pressure on ourselves to get things right the first time and make ourselves slaves to our desks.

But what if these are the very attitudes that are getting in our way?

What if we need the mistakes to point us in the right direction?

Adopt an experimental mindset

Treating our projects as experiments can take the pressure off.

The goalpost gets moved from “getting it right” to “giving it a go”.

Because when we experiment, we don’t just repeat the same process over and over, we try different methods.

The opposite would be doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

But when we don’t pause, we leave no room to rest, ideate and analyse to see if our approach is actually working.

Mastery requires feedback, not just reps.

It pays to respect those moments away from our desks!

💡 Inspiration

This podcast with Mel Robbins hit home for me. She suggests that we should normalise doing the things we don’t feel like doing!

For example, many of us don’t like getting up for our early alarms but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it or won’t reap the benefits of doing it.

I relate to this because while I have been living the freelancer’s life, designing my schedule to work for me, I feel as though I have been acting too much based on my passing moods.

Because there is a difference between what we *want to do* and what we *feel like doing* in the moment.

🗞️ Update

Guess what, I’ve been to London twice in the space of 4 days! Trust me that is huge 🤣

I attended a small bizmas party, organised by the kind and generous Alice Benham and her sponsor Lucy Legal.

💥 It was the event I needed!! 💥

I’ve been feeling quite isolated freelancing and WFH recently 💻

It means I spend a lot of time in my head and can lean too much into comfort and avoid the things that I might enjoy because:

1. I decide that I don’t *feel* like doing them.

2. I want to keep my diary free so that I can work on the business.

The cycle of isolation is self-perpetuating 👀

Even on my way to the event, I was excited but tired, and part of me didn’t feel like travelling into London.

But when I got there, I came alive, had the best time, and met some empowering business owners 🎄

Not only that, a large group of us met for dinner beforehand. I didn’t know anyone but I felt very comfortable! 

👉🏻 The Christmas party made me realise a few things:

• How many fun outings have I missed because I wrote them off too soon?

• I miss getting the chance to dress up and feel nice.

• I felt so energised by spending time in the company of others.

• I want to change my lifestyle so that I can see more people.

🚨 And that my friends is why I am thinking about getting a job because I want to join a creative team 👀

It has taken time to admit this to myself, but at this stage of my life, community is increasingly more important!

I hope that my vulnerability has invited you to find the courage to address the things that you are not addressing so that you can be happier and healthier!

P.s. don’t forget to grab a 2024 calendar before they sell out:

Take 10% off with Closefriends10 ❤️

That’s a wrap. Thanks for being here!

Feel free to reply to this email if you have any questions, requests or feedback. I will respond at my earliest opportunity.

Big love,

Hannah aka Quoted Visually x

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