Trying it out for real
Once you’ve put the first version of your plan into action, it’s time to learn what you can from it, by completing this lesson’s worksheet ideally sometime later the same day. You can think of this as the start of a happily self-reinforcing habit of testing, observing, adjusting, and testing again, learning more each time.
Try review finetune iterate
Workbook activities
The workbook has your “review and refine” guide to making sense of your experiences.
Journaling prompts
- Yesterday: What telling little details can you pull out of yesterday? What general wisdoms do they remind you of?
- Living in line with my values: When you hear the phrase “living in line with your values”, what does it make you think of? In what ways does that phrase fit or jar with your own life right now? What’s your sense of how greater alignment might be achievable for you?
Quick-win challenge
Mastering the decisive moment
Identify one point in your actual morning where things either could have started to slide away from what was intended and didn’t, or that possibility arose and then it did happen. Maybe it was the moment you realized you needed 2-factor authentication to log onto online banking and did or didn’t switch your phone on, or the moment your partner asked you to quickly help them with something and you said yes or no, or the time when you were doing some writing or sketching and you got to a difficult bit and you really really wanted to escape from it with email or news or something and you did or didn’t, or standing in front of the fridge and not knowing whether you could really do this breakfast plan you’d made for yourself.
In your journal, articulate the structure of this moment as simply as you can, e.g. practical excuse to turn phone on, someone else wanting something from me, difficulty making me want distraction, danger of losing nerve at last minute.
Now note down 3 possible successful responses that keep the plan alive, including the one you took if you did, e.g. turn off mobile data and wifi to just receive the OTP text and set reminder for that recurring payment for next time; or some simple responses to use when sb wants something (and how to feel better about the no afterwards), or other things to do instead of restoring to dopamine distractions from difficulty, e.g. get up and go to the window or close eyes and count to 10 or have a list of easier things to turn to on the same project; or putting a note on the fridge door to remind yourself why you’re doing it or taking the first steps the night before (e.g. bowl and spoon out).
Look out for the next moment you can try one of your ideas out (whether later today or your next planned morning), and do it, and see what happens and how it feels, to attune yourself to structural vulnerabilities like this.