Split Testing for Personal Growth

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If you’ve done any in-depth marketing, especially Internet Marketing, you have probably heard of, if not utilized the concept of split testing. Split testing allows you to track, analyze and continuously improve marketing campaigns through ongoing, incremental changes to a specific element of the campaign.

If you were split testing a landing page for your website you would have two (or more) pages that were identical except for one element. For instance, you might change the headline and test to see which page has a higher conversion rate. Once you have an accurate assessment you remove the loser and replace it with a new page with a different change and test again.

Split testing is an extremely simple, but powerful technique for continuously improving your web site’s performance.

But this concept of split testing can be applied to virtually any dynamic process including personal growth.

By testing one incremental change in your life and tracking the results you can determine if this change is positive or negative. For example if you currently eat a vegetarian diet and want to see how eating chicken will affect you, add chicken to your diet. But, you must make that one change only, and you must make the change for long enough to have statistically accurate data. (See the entry Too Many Personal Growth Variables for more on this).

Of course statistically accurate data is a bit subjective when it comes to personal growth. But here are some guidelines:

Clarify your baseline: In order to know if these changes are positive, negative or have little or no effect on you, you must know where you are starting. So before you begin any personal growth split testing, do an initial self-assessment. You can be as formal or informal as you like. But do take some time to write your honest impressions about your present baseline state. The most important thing is to get an overall sense of your state of well-being: This can be as simple as taking a snapshot of physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual states and giving yourself an overall rank on a scale of 1-10.

If you want to be more formal about the assessment process, Coachville has an extensive list of self-assessment tools and Martin Seligman’s Authentic Happiness site has some useful assessment tools for tracking your psychological/emotional state.)

Track the change through known cycles: You should track your results through at least one round of known cycles. If you’re female that definitely means tracking it through at least one full menstrual cycle. And for men, we have cycles too. If you know that you tend to have a week feeling really good and then a week feeling just ok, make sure you track the change through at least one of those cycles.

Be consistent during the tracking period: If you’re going to add chicken to your diet, be clear about how much and how often, i.e. 6 ounces twice a week, and be consistent with that frequency. If you’re going to see how exercising five-days a week affects you, make sure you exercise five-days a week during the test period to get an accurate result.

Don’t intentionally make other changes to your life: To the extent that you can control change…do not make additional changes to your life during the trial period. It you are adding chicken to your diet, do not also increase your exercise. If you did, it would be difficult to know which change contributed to the results. In some cases, adding two, or more changes at once could actually cancel each other out.

Take into account external factors beyond your control: There certainly are events that are outside of our control. If some major event occurs in or around your life during the trial period, recognize that it may have an effect on your life. If necessary, extend the trial to get better data.

Once you feel you have tracked the change long enough and have statistically accurate data, you can analyze that data and make a determination if the change you were testing has a net positive result for you. A net positive result means that the positive effects in and on your life outweigh any negative effects.

To continue with the chicken example, after you’ve tracked the test through at least one round of your natural cycles, you should be pretty clear whether this change improves your vitality, diminishes it, or has very little effect on it.

Do an overall well-being assessment: Again, taking into consideration your physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual states, where are you on a scale of 1-10.

If you’ve used more formal assessment tools, now is the time to compare notes. Where has the quality of your life improved? By how much? Where has the quality of your life decreased? By how much?

Even if you don’t do a formal pre- and post-test assessment, you will know if the change has been positive, negative or neutral. The ultimate assessment tools will be your intuition and your feelings.

Once you decide to make the tested a change a permanent part of your life or to drop it, you can repeat the process with a new test.

If you use this split testing process on a consistent basis you can implement at least six to ten personal growth improvements each year. And while the effects of each improvement, alone, may be minimal, the combined effect on your life at the end of the year will be significant.

Posted by Edward Mills | Filed Under Personal Growth, Tools & Techniques, Well-Being 

Too Many Personal Growth Variables

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In split testing you make one change and track the results of that change. I have completely dispensed with that technique as of last Thursday. It wasn’t intentional. At the time, I had not made the connection between split testing and personal growth. I had not recognized the power of testing one discrete change in my life before moving on to the next one. So, as of last Thursday, I began incorporating three significant changes into my life.

First, I returned to my 5:00am for 30-days trial. It had been on hold while Melissa was in Nashville and, obviously, while Ella and I were down there.

Second, I began the Holosync program. I have listened to The Dive every morning since then and listened to an additional recording on three of the eight days.

Third, I have begun doing hydrotherapy each morning at the end of my shower. If you’re not familiar with hydrotherapy, it’s a simple process of turning the water on very hot for 8 seconds, then very cold for 8 seconds and repeating it three times, ending with cold. It has been shown to stimulate the immune system. And it certainly does wake you up!

Now I’m not about to change this. I’m feeling quite good with all of these new routines. However, I do regret that I will not be able to track how each of them is affecting me individually. In other words, I will have to take these three changes as one group. Whatever effects I feel will be attributed to the entire group rather than just one of them. And this may, or may not be an accurate reflection of cause and effect.

Watch for a posting later today or tomorrow on how I will be doing my split testing for personal growth from now on.

Posted by Edward Mills | Filed Under Personal Growth, Tools & Techniques 

Holosync Update - Day 8

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Today my morning meditation with the holosync recording felt natural, fluid and calm. Past meditations with the recording have had a significant up and down feel to them: bouncing into mind chatter than back to a deep trance state. This morning I did not go as deep as I have in some of the previous meditations, but I felt more present and calm for the entire 30-minutes. There was a level of consciousness in this morning’s meditation that is new. I felt I was observing the process while being in the process all at the same time.

I felt so calm and grounded by the end ot the Dive, that I was very tempted to extend the mediation and go into the Immersion recording. But, again, I decided to trust that Centerpointe’s recommendation to spend the first fourteen days listening to just The Dive is based on solid experience.

Posted by Edward Mills | Filed Under Meditation, Personal Growth, Tools & Techniques, technology 

Holosync Update – Day 6

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Soon after writing yesterday’s entry on the Holosync System, I listened to the CD “Making Change Easy” for the first time since beginning the program. This CD is included in the introductory package and uses both the Holosync technology to induce a Theta brain wave state, as well as Centerpointe’s Autofonix technology, a method of embedding inaudible, positive affirmations in the recording. This CD includes affirmations such as: Change is Natural. I open myself to change. Change is easy and safe. Change leads to happiness and fulfillment.

My experience with this CD was one of deep relaxation. I found myself on the edge of sleep, literally “nodding off” a few times as I sat in the chair. By the end of the 30-minute session, I felt deeply relaxed but also energized and recharged. The feeling of heaviness and lethargy that I had been experiencing during the past few days was gone.

Admittedly, that change began while writing yesterday’s post. The writing brought me to a deeper place of acceptance around the growth process and dissipated some of the resistance (heaviness) I was experiencing.

Between the writing and the “Making Change Easy” CD, today, day six, has begun in a much lighter, more positive vibration than any of the previous five days. During this morning’s meditation I felt a bit of mind chatter in the beginning. It seemed to take a bit longer to drop down but once I got there, it felt more sustainable. I was tempted to let the CD play through to Immersion, but I decided to continue with The Dive only for the first 14 days as recommended. I did sit in meditation for another 15-minutes or so after the recording ended, enjoying the deep, relaxed state of awareness.

I will be interested to track my emotional/vibrational state throughout the day to see how sustainable this deep, relaxed state of awareness is. I’ll keep you posted.

Posted by Edward Mills | Filed Under Tools & Techniques, technology 

Technology and Personal Growth - Holosync Solution

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Lately, I’m interested in the role of technology in the process of personal evolution. I’m convinced there are specific technologies available that can assist and accelerate our personal growth. To that end I’ve been researching various technologies to determine which I would like to start exploring. (There are many out there!)

The technology that I have chosen to begin my exploration is the Holosync system by Centerpointe Research Institute.  (Note that I am using affiliate links in this article but not yet giving a recommendation. I will provide regular updates on my experience with the product. And when I have enough data to provide a recommendation [or not] I will do so. Until then, if you feel that this article intrigues you and would like to investigate the Holosync Technology and make a decision on your own, I would be happy to have you use my affiliate link. I highly recommend you get their introductory package before purchasing the first level. This includes a CD with a demo of the Holosync technology. This demo convinced me that this technology has powerful potential. If you are uncomfortable using the affiliate link when I am not yet recommending the product, please use this direct, non-affiliate link: http://www.centerpointe.com).

The Holosync system uses proprietary audio technology to help you quickly reach specific, deep states of meditation including alpha, theta and delta states. I won’t go into the details here since there is a plethora of information, including the results of several studies available at the Centerpointe website.

In my first 5-days of using the system I can safely say that the Holosync recordings absolutely do facilitate your descent into deep meditation. I’m going to share a bit about my experience during these first five days, but first I want to quickly share my wife’s experience during her first session with The Dive.

Last night she listened to the intro CD and told me she was interested in the program. Today, she called me at the office to thank me for getting these recordings. Apparently, she had one of the most profound meditation experiences in her life. She was in tears as she spoke about how the meditation had helped her “click in.” Everything seemed to fall into place. Now, keep in mind that her father passed away less than two-weeks ago and, since then, she has been feeling like her life was turned upside down. Every aspect of her life was on the table for re-evaluation. So she was in a very open space. The Holosync meditation seems to have provided her with a way of tapping into and organizing new levels of awareness and understanding that have been coming together since her father’s passing.

My experience with the Holosync, while not quite opposite, has certainly been quite different. Centerpointe presents clear disclaimers and warnings that this technology has the potential to create significant changes that can lead to discomfort. This is true of any personal growth system whether it is technological or not.

These first days of using Holosync has convinced me that the technology works. While I was a regular meditator for several years, my practice has definitely been on and off since the birth of my daughter three years ago. But during two of these first five days I have experienced a deep meditative state equal to the most tranquil states I achieved during many years of regular meditation. During the other three days, my experience, while not as deep, was still profoundly peaceful with minimal mind chatter and mental distraction.

However, my experience outside of meditation has borne out the truth of Centerpointe’s disclaimer. While I would not call it discomfort, I have found myself in a fairly low resonance. I feel lethargic, heavy, unfocused.

However, I believe this is actually a positive development. Let me explain.

I sense that this technology is helping me descend to my baseline point (compare this to the concept of “set points” in Law of Attraction teachings) on the emotional scale, the point to which I drop when I reach my current emotional/vibrational trigger point.

Now why is that positive? Because I sense that some of the personal growth techniques I have utilized in the past have created “band-aid” type solutions that have allowed me to move up the emotional scale without changing the underlying structure of my vibrational offering.

In other words, while I have been able to raise my functional vibrational offering – the structure that you see above ground – the underlying vibration – the foundation upon which I am offering those vibrations – remains unstable. That is why I have not been able to maintain a heightened vibrational offering of joy and enthusiasm for extended periods. I have moments, hours, days, even weeks when I am in a state of joyous co-creation and expression, but inevitably, when something in the external environment pushes me to my trigger-point, I drop back down to a lower – sometimes much lower – level on the emotional scale.

The Holosync recordings are pushing me to my trigger point on a daily basis in a controlled manner and while I am in a brain-wave state that allows for the immediate reorganization of my conditioned response to that trigger point. And, what is more important, this daily activation of my trigger-point leads to an increase in my trigger-point threshold.

In other words, each time the holosync recordings take me to my current vibrational trigger-point, the internal reorganization that occurs raises my threshold. It is similar to the process of strength training. To most effectively increase your strength you must push yourself to your current strength limit. That is why effective personal trainers take their clients to their exhaustion point or muscle failure. They know that is the point at which truly effective muscle strengthening occurs.

But in the same way that after a hard workout your muscles are sore for a few days, taking yourself to an emotional/vibrational trigger-point will most-likely lead to some mental/emotional/vibrational soreness. I believe that is what I am experiencing with this feeling of lethargy and lack of focus.

If this process is similar to physical conditioning I will most likely experience a series of plateaus: A few days or weeks of “soreness” while I am pushing my trigger point to a higher level and then a period of rest and deep reorganization at that new level.

And I am all for that! Spending a few days or weeks in a lowered vibrational space in order to create a foundation upon which I can sustain a heightened experience of joy and enthusiasm is well worth it!

I will most definitely keep you posted as I continue to move through the Holosync Program in my exploration of technology-assisted personal evolution. And when I am ready to recommend it to you (or not) I will definitely let you know.

Posted by Edward Mills | Filed Under Tools & Techniques, technology 

Go ahead, Get Overwhelmed!

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You may have noted a recent increase in activity over here at Personal Evolution Coaching land. Well it’s been an intentional process. In one of the coaching groups that I attend, facilitated by Drew Rozell, we were discussing overwhelm and we started to explore the difference between being overwhelmed by what is actually happening in your life and being overwhelmed by the prospect of what might happen – a subtle but important distinction.

Drew suggested actually getting overwhelmed. Go out and do all the things you want to do. Implement all the projects that have been sitting on your shelf. Get in the game fully. And then, when you reach maximum capacity – my wife’s term – you can start thinning out what is not working.

For me, it’s been a great shift in the way I work. Normally I come up with an idea – or three or ten – and sit with them, think about them, plan them, etc., until I’m “sure” that I’m supposed to be doing it. More often than not, I end up spending a lot of that time doing “research” which is really another way of saying that I’m wasting time.

Now that I’ve implemented this new strategy of getting myself overwhelmed, I don’t have any time to waste. Every day there is something exciting happening with one of the new projects that I’ve started.

And the interesting thing is that, thus far, I’ve not been overwhelmed. In fact, quite the opposite, I’ve been energized and excited about sharing all of these new things with the world.

Will they all fly? Probably not. Some will work, some won’t. But that’s the beauty of having a multitude of offerings out in the world. I’m getting real-time feedback on what people want. And as long as I’m excited about what I’m offering, I don’t care if I have to let go of one project, because I know there are ten more waiting to take it’s place.

To see some of these new, exciting and non-overwhelming projects, go to http://www.edwardmills.com/events

Posted by Edward Mills | Filed Under Deliberate Creation, Tools & Techniques 

Start Your Day with a Smile

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Try this: Every morning, when you first become aware of your wakeful presence, smile! Start your day with a smile. Make it your intention to have the very first intentional thing you do each day be a smile. You’ll be amazed at how powerfully that one act can be at setting the tone for your day. Do it no matter how tired you are, no matter how little sleep you got, no matter how much you’re dreading some aspect of your day. Smile.

I love this quote from Thich Nhat Hanh: Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.

Remember that a smile can brighten a person’s day. And if you wake up with a smile, it just might be your day that gets brighter.

Posted by Edward Mills | Filed Under Deliberate Creation, Emotions, Feelings, Inspiration, Joy, Tools & Techniques