If you do what you’ve always done, or what everyone else does, you can’t create great experiences.

That’s because the way it’s always been done becomes the expected way, the average way, the invisible way. It becomes mundane.

If you want to create great experiences, you have to do things that haven’t been done before. Things that break conventions are novel. They make us pay attention, they cause us to remark, and if done well, might release the little pulse of dopamine and/or epinephrine that make us feel, “ah, that was great”

To do something novel, you need to make trouble for yourself. You need to push your boundaries, break conventions, get uncomfortable.

That’s not something most of us are inclined to do willingly, so you might need some tools. Here are 3:

1. Get on stage. It doesn’t have to be a to literal stage, but it could be. Just find a group of people and commit to showing up and presenting your new work.
2. Join a cohort. Or organise one. Commit to showing up with others for the process of discovering your new work together.
3. Create a streak. Commit to sharing regular, public updates in any form that works for you. They must be public, and they must be regular; weekly at least, daily is preferable.

All 3 tools above make trouble for yourself. You’re on the hook. You’ve created a panic monster. The monster will chase you to the edges of your box and out there, on the edge, you’ll find the novelty required to set you apart.

A word of caution. It’s not enough just to be novel. You need to be both novel and effective. Nobody wants their pediatrician to try something novel during surgery. But a pediatrician who wears a red nose during the first 5 minutes of the initial consult; well that’s not dangerous, and it’s an experience both the parent and the child will remember and remark upon.

So make some trouble for yourself and be remarkable 🙂