There was a time when dragging my feet to do networking outreach was so difficult. Since then, I’ve learned how to use the experiment mindset to combat my overthinking. This all started with an article by Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey.

Immunity to Change (Robert and Lisa’s book) explores why we fail our goals and the existence of a hidden worry or fear inhibiting us from change. For example, my friend and I used to have a pact. We would each send 3 networking messages per week. This continued for 3 weeks before it naturally disappeared from our minds. This experience might seem familiar to you, either with your new year’s resolutions or the newest health trend you’re following.

We didn’t stop taking action and pursuing our goal because we lack motivation, but because a hidden fear pushed against our desire to change. I was worried that what I have to offer wouldn’t interest my networking targets. Most importantly, I was scared if I continue my efforts, then my worry would be proven true. To combat this, I had to adopt an experiment mindset by deeply exploring hypothesis I had (about both myself and the world) and creating safe, incremental experiments to test this hypothesis.

I set out to validate 2 hypothesis: (1) people are looking to gain a valuable transaction from networking calls, and (2) my expertise is not valuable to the people I want to meet. I tested them through Lunchclub. Lunchclub sets up 45-minute calls with strangers from industries or locations of your interest. From this experiment, I found that my assumptions are wrong: (1) people are just looking to meet other people, learn something new, and share their own stories (i.e. not transactional at all!); and (2) I have a differential advantage in my knowledge and experience in startups and emerging markets as a young professional. Since then, I’ve become more comfortable with reaching out to people and have continued using Lunchclub to expand my network.

This post is for my fellow overthinkers. Sometimes, all it takes to create change is to look at your worries and debunk them through small experiments. I highly recommend looking back at the things you’ve been struggling to change in your life. Hopefully, you will be able to uncover your hidden worries and prove that your negative assumptions are wrong. So, you can take the step towards the growth that you want.