← The Imaginal Act, thirty days

Week 1 · See · Day 04 of 30

Lines for soul.md

Today's intent (planned)

Write the first lines of your inner contract: what you value, who you are being, and how you want to be spoken to.

The practice

  1. Under ## Values in soul.md, write the five values you rank highest, in order. When two collide, the higher one wins.
  2. Under ## I am, write two or three lines in the present tense, each something you can act on today: "I am someone who finishes what I start." Not "I am rich," and never a line about what another person feels or does. Write a line you can vote for with your own hands.
  3. Under ## Voice, choose gentle, direct or challenging, and add one thing an agent must never say to you.
  4. Read the lines aloud once. Change any word that sounds like someone else's.
  5. Save soul.md (Studio: Soul). Agents may propose edits to it; only you apply them.

Why it works

Meaning

These lines are yours, in your own language. Some people read them as a promise to themselves; some as a reminder of who they already are on a good day. Whatever they mean to you, they give you a place to stand when the day pushes. Kind, specific words belong here.

Mechanism

An "I am" line works through behavior. Each act that matches it is a small vote for that identity, and acting from a chosen identity makes the matching choice easier. Reflecting on your values can lower defensiveness when things go badly. These effects are real and modest. A line you cannot act on today gives the votes nothing to land on.

Tonight (reported)

Did one act today match an "I am" line, however small? Add an entry at the top of reality/witness.md, headed ### <today> <time> · win, and one line to reality/evidence.md (start it with # Evidence if it is new): - <today> · <the act, as a vote> (Studio: Witness). If none did, head it · lesson instead and note what was in the way. Both are information.

  • Happened (fact): The act, as an observer would describe it.
  • Meant (my meaning): Which line it voted for, and what that means to you.
  • Did (action): Only what is done.
  • Next (planned): One act tomorrow for the same line.
  • Did it come? No look-for yet; it starts tomorrow. Leave that line out of today's log.