Introducing the programming form
In my life, there’s been a few ideas have captured my mind and helped me navigate different situations throughout my life. Often those ideas were captured in simple quotes like:
Go with the flow helped me take it easy when I was a teenager…
Sometimes the only way out is in helped me navigate some difficult personal conversations.
What's the thing I really don't want to do? helped me prioritize things I was avoiding and encourage me to get started.
Don't make assumptions helped me reframe a lot of different situations.
Each of these has been instrumental in getting me to reframe and navigate situations in different phases of myself. I would repeat them to myself like a mantra. The problem is for each of these I have come across a thousand more ideas that I have highlighted in a book or nodded to in a podcast then quickly forgot. Even after a while, I would forget the ones that have been useful.
How can I stop forgetting certain ideas that I have come across? How can I ensure that useful ideas are there when they are needed? Through daily exposure. And this is where the programming form comes in.
The programming form helps me program myself. It helps solidify certain ideas in the way I think.
What is my purpose? What am I doing about it today?
The first question on there is about purpose. For a while I had a set answer that , but I no longer do. I found it to be a lot more motivating to also ask about what I am doing today.
What are you grateful for?
There’s enough out there about gratitude. This is a way of forcing myself to go through this exercise every morning.
Give an example or repeat: some quote.
I have more than 60 ideas captured here in a short pithy statement. Two are picked randomly and asked.
For the longest time, I would only have to type a quote or an answer to a question, thinking that exposure though repetition would aid recollection when needed. However, I found it a lot more effective to ask open-ended questions about the quote like give an example.
Why something?
Finally, there’s asking with why. This comes from the fact that I tend forget why I start something. Why am I dieting or working out or using Beeminder or fasting or meditating…? This helps keep things in perspective and remind me why something is important to me, even if I am not doing anything towards it right now.
Does this approach work? Maybe. Certain ideas have come through and helped me behave in certain ways. But it’s tough to measure the impact of.
Edit: I messed up the posting of this. Tried to delete it and then edited again to finish it.