← The Imaginal Act, thirty days

Week 4 · Compound · Day 30 of 30

Keep, release, carry

Today's intent (planned)

Decide what to keep, what to release and what to carry into the next 30 days, and write it where you will see it tomorrow.

The practice

  1. Set today's look-for in reality/log/<today>.md.
  2. For your aim, choose one: achieved (the done-when is true), extend (a new by: date and one change from the pace check), or release. In reality/aims/<slug>.md, set status: to achieved, active or released (Studio: Bridges). Release is information, not defeat.
  3. For each practice from this month (the look-for, the scene, the rep, the evening entry, the weekly seal, the decision record), choose keep or release. Keep three at most.
  4. Read your scene. Keep it, or rewrite it under ## The scene in soul.md with what you now know.
  5. Write three lines in today's log: - Keep: … for the practices that stay, - Release: … for what you set down, and - Carry: … for unfinished work you bring forward, such as an extended aim or a correction.
  6. Put the next weekly seal in your own calendar, seven days from today.

Why it works

Meaning

Endings are also thresholds. What you release is not lost; it made room. What you keep has shown it can live in ordinary days. Whatever this month meant to you, you can say it in your own words and let what comes next begin there.

Mechanism

Thirty days does not form a habit. In a field study, habits took from 18 to 254 days to form, about 66 on average, so keeping a few practices at a size that survives hard days gives repetition the months it needs. Releasing an aim you no longer hold is sound planning: plans help you act on a goal, but they cannot supply the wish to pursue it.

Tonight (reported)

Add an entry at the top of reality/witness.md, headed ### <today> <time> · lesson or the kind that is truest (Studio: Witness):

  • Happened (fact): What you kept, released and carried.
  • Meant (my meaning): What these days meant to you, in one sentence.
  • Did (action): Only what is done.
  • Next (planned): Tomorrow: the same morning line, from your own files.
  • Did it come? In the log: - Did it come: yes, no or not marked.