Tiny Experiments, Big Year
Image credit: Bruno Gobo on Pexels
Reflections on Starting, Stopping, and What’s Next
One thing about me (that drives my husband crazy) is that I often think about, or spend unreasonable amounts of time planning, something instead of just doing it.
For example, I’ve wanted to rearrange the furniture in our living space (and eventually swap for new furniture). I made a new layout that looks awesome in Canva (yes, you can create scale floorplans there, happy to discuss… just message me). HOWEVER, when we went to do the initial furniture move, we were held up because I was trying to think through exactly how we should move things to make it happen, since our space is very tight.
I hemmed and hawed over it until my husband finally said, “Let’s just start.”
We did that, and you know what… it worked out fine, and we got the first step done.
Now, there may be many more steps to my overall plan, but it was moved forward in reality because we just started… and I stepped out of my head.
There are probably countless reasons why I’m this way, and I am constantly trying to be better at pretty much everything: always adjusting, tweaking, starting, and stopping things. This often makes me feel like a failure, especially the starting and stopping.
Why Tiny Experiments Hit Home
Anne-Laure Le Cunff’s book Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World doesn’t try to talk you out of your tendencies. Instead, she reframes them. Offering a more humane, flexible way to navigate growth, productivity, and change.
It’s anti-hustle, anti-perfection, and anti-rigid-plans-pretending-to-be-systems.
Which makes it surprisingly radical for a book that’s mostly about… just trying things.
Here are a few of her key ideas that hit especially hard. The ones that got me to pause and rethink how I define progress, habits, and success.
1. Unlearning (failure) scripts
This one cut deep. I have an extensive internal file cabinet labeled “Things I Started But Didn’t Finish.” Le Cunff suggests that starting and stopping isn’t failure… it’s feedback…. iteration… data.
But only if you’re paying attention. That means I have to stop treating every pause like a personal defect and start asking better questions: What did I learn? What worked for me? What didn’t?
Honestly, I’ve made so much more progress in the past year than I give myself credit for, but I rarely sit with that long enough to appreciate it before moving the goalposts again.
This ties back to something Le Cunff makes clear: growth doesn’t happen in a clean, straight line.
It’s not a ladder, it’s a loop. Instead of always trying to move up or forward, it’s about iterating, exploring, and adapting… over and over again.
2. Pacts > Habits
This one is sneaky and oh-so-smart. Instead of trying to build lifelong habits from day one, Le Cunff proposes making small pacts:
“I will do [this action] for [this amount of time].”
There’s no assumption that it becomes part of your permanent identity. It’s an experiment, not a performance metric.
This felt like a slap and a hug at the same time.
I’ve absolutely done the “start a habit and then get mad at myself for not doing it perfectly forever” dance. So the idea of making a time-bound, low-stakes pact… just to see what happens… feels doable.
It helps me frame something I’m actually pretty good at (experimenting) and, instead of hanging onto the idea that I’m a failure because it doesn’t yield permanent change, update my internal narrative to one of success: I tried something and learned from it.
3. The ( + ) Plus/ ( - ) Minus/Next practice
I may have historically developed overcomplicated reflection systems… spreadsheet trackers… color-coded journals… elaborate tracking files that take more time to build than to fill out.
None of them stick.
So when Le Cunff suggested a quick weekly reflection using just three prompts:
➕ Plus (+): What worked?
➖ Minus (-): What didn’t?
✔️ Next: What’s next?
My brain let out a relieved little exhale. It’s the kind of system that’s lightweight enough to live in in your notes app (or better yet, in a notebook), but thoughtful enough to give clarity over time.
Especially in this season, as I balance my new fractional role with building Alchemy, I need reflection practices that feel sustainable, not punishing.
You can check out more on her method here.
Final Thoughts: My 2025 in +/-/Next
To close out the year, I’m trying her approach. No sprawling annual review - just a simple check-in:
(➕) What worked:
Launching Alchemy - the website, the newsletter, social media posting, and delivering my first client project.
Reading. I’ve always used it to fuel ideas, but this year I built a more intentional structure around it with my newsletter and blog.
Saying no to misaligned work.
Holding tighter boundaries around time and energy.
(➖)What didn’t:
Getting lost in planning loops (see: Canva floorplans).
Overcommitting to my own goals and getting overwhelmed.
Making rest a reward instead of a requirement.
Treating every habit like a moral failing when I paused (or forgot I meant to start).
✔️ What’s next:
Weekly +/-/next practice to stay grounded. Putting 15 minutes on my calendar each week to get it done, since I know it’ll take me longer than 5.
More experiments, fewer expectations.
Less structure-for-structure’s-sake.
More space for things that feel real, even if they are small.
The biggest takeaway - tiny doesn’t mean insignificant.
And honestly, that’s the lesson I keep learning (and unlearning): progress isn’t always visible from the outside, and planning something to excess doesn’t guarantee it’ll be better… it just guarantees it’ll be later.
Here’s to smaller plans, quicker starts, and smarter pauses in 2026.
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About Me
I’m Tara, founder of Alchemy Advising, a consulting practice that helps small and mid-sized businesses grow with clarity, confidence, and a lot less chaos.
This blog is where I share reflections on entrepreneurship, ambition, motherhood, and the magic (and mess) of building something meaningful—one decision at a time.
Curious about working together? Reach out here—I’d love to hear more about your business.