Tiny experiments in action
After my recent trip to Portugal, I realized rather than walking the actual Camino de Santiago, I wanted to do a sustainable version at home to build a habit of walking that could become a part of my daily lifestyle. Prior to this trip, I had been pretty sedentary given the weather and wanted to be more physically active. For this #caminoathomechallenge, I set out to walk 200 miles in 60 days. There are many Camino de Santiago trails that range anywhere from 150 to 600+ miles. I chose this goal because it meant walking 4 miles per day for 50 days, with 10 rest days built in. This felt both challenging from my then-baseline but doable. Having a stretch goal that wasn’t too ambitious provided the right level of motivation. It also helped to give myself the right amount of time to reach this goal. I have found that many times if you set a goal that you have to achieve within a short amount of time that early on, you might not make enough progress so that you abandon the whole effort. Likewise, if you give yourself too much time, you may never make much progress because you think you can work on it later. In this case, 60 days was the perfect balance.
Initially, I was trying to walk 3.5-4 miles per day on average because I wanted to stay on track to hit the 200 miles. Having this larger total mile goal did motivate me to walk on days where I just didn’t want to move. What I found to be surprising was that because I built up my mileage so well in the first few weeks, it gave me more leeway over time. This reminds me so much of the power of compounding interest. When you invest what feels like a lot of money initially, over time you don’t have to add as much money to still reach the same investment goal. I will likely hit 200 miles tomorrow, 5 days before the end of the challenge period. In general, I have found it easier to walk for longer and also how much I enjoy walking. When I’m having a tough day or feel like I have some stress to blow off, walking is a great way to relieve some of that angst. I have enjoyed being active. While I may not continue walking the same mileage once the challenge is over, I will definitely continue to be active. Part of what this challenge made me realize is that I miss strength training, yoga, and other forms of movement beyond walking and I’m excited to incorporate more of those.
I recently finished reading Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal Obsessed World by Anne-Laure Le Cunff, which discusses the concept of a tiny experiment pact as a framework for mindful experimentation, which is built upon the following principles:
Purposeful: Choose actions that feel meaningful.
Actionable: Keep them simple and doable.
Continuous: Repeat them consistently.
Trackable: Use a clear metric (e.g., yes/no)
One of goals of these tiny experiments is to shift the focus from outcomes to process, e.g., instead of saying “I want [outcome] by [date]”, you say “I will [action] for [duration].” The idea in doing so is that you remove the fear and judgment of failure because you’re committing to the process rather than outcome. Did you show up to compete your pact versus did you achieve some huge goal? It gives you the tools and space to take the actions towards the bigger goal without making it all about the result. I still think that my #caminoathomechallenge was successful and motivating even though it technically was an outcome focused goal—but this was the case because it was actually process-driven in terms of just getting myself to walk. I wasn’t super strict on walking a certain amount each day but listening to my body and doing what I could. I found that in the day-to-day, the way I measured success was by asking myself did I walk a little today?
For the next two months before I go to Korea, I am excited to make some new, tiny experiment pacts with this new framework in mind. In reviewing my 25 things for 2025, one of the goals that I have made zero progress on is losing ten pounds. These are the same ten pounds I’ve been trying to lose my entire life. My body has been extremely good at staying at my 2025 starting weight of 135 pounds. I have stayed at this weight for a while at various points throughout my life and this is clearly a weight that my body is comfortable being in and finds itself returning to—this has become my set weight (if you subscribe to the set point weight theory). Despite having walked 200+ miles, I haven’t lost a single pound. So, clearly I need to switch things up. I am committing to a month of intermittent fasting to help boost my metabolism and to give my body more time to burn fat and hopefully make progress on my weight loss. So even though the goal is weight loss, the experimental pact is intermittent fasting 5+ times per week, with a minimum fasting time of 13 hours. I am currently trialing the Zero app to track progress. While I am setting an easy “yes/no” pact definition, I will be trying out different fasting lengths to see what works and to keep my metabolism on edge.
On another related health topic, I want to get back in touch with my yoga practice. I am setting another goal of completing 30 days of yoga in 40 days. It was really helpful to have rest days built into my camino challenge because rest/off days are inevitable and it prevented me from quitting mid-way because I missed a day or two early on. I kickstarted this goal yesterday. I am tracking my progress in the Tally app. Another tiny experiment that I set out in my 25 things for 2025 is 4, 1-week social media cleanses (staying off Instagram and Tiktok). I am currently in my second 1-week social media cleanse and am also tracking this in the Tally app. Sometimes, things feel so much harder than they really are and you just have to start small to realize you can do it.
These are the pacts that I am focusing on for now. Because these are simple and easy-to-track progress goals, they should be even easier to implement than the #caminoathomechallenge. I am excited to see how the rest of the summer shapes up with these additional goals. If you’ve been looking to find a framework to make small but meaningful changes in your life, I recommend you check out the Tiny Experiments book, as it has something to offer anyone who is looking to grow and try something new.