Public Experiment #1: Being more positive

First public experiment blog post! I've written a private diary called "Life is a Science Experiment" for quite a while now, but for the first time, I'm experimenting by just blogging about my experiments publicly. This feels so exciting!!

Why am I doing this? First and foremost, to increase the success rate on my experiments. Secondly, maybe someone reads this and is inspired to try their only experiment blog (https://www.raptitude.com/ sure did for me).

Experiment #1: Don't complain / say anything negative or sarcastic for 7 days

Motivations: I want to experiment with how it feels to just not say anything negative. Don't trash on that new bad song or TV show. Or bad restaurant food. This just feels like an interesting initial experiment to run. I'm curious if this actually has any impact on my life. 

Hypothesis: I suspect, if this succeeds, I will be somewhat nicer to be around. I will also be more mindful of what I'm saying, which is always good. I don't think the optimum amount of complaining, but probably 20-50% of current level.

P(success)?: 30% honestly. I think the tricky part is just remembering to not be negative. Well, I define success as reasonably, I say negative stuff <5 times throughout a 1 week period. 

How do I make P(s) higher?: Hmmm... this is tricky. I think it's a lot of trying to be mindful in conversations. I think if I just talk less, and think and listen more, automatically I'll say less negative stuff. Okay then!

November 1st, 2024

I started this at night, so didn't have much experiment time. Let's see tomorrow!

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