grimoire.txt

Exploring the problem space
• Five terrible models of what might be going on
• Similar problems I’ve solved before
• Five situations this reminds me of
• Details of the experience of [Feeling X]
• Three times I would have expected to have this problem and didn’t
• Three times I had this problem recently
• Three times where I didn’t expect to have this problem, but did
• Times when I’ve done well at handling this

Eliciting/navigating hesitations
• End-goal alternatives to my current plan
• List of known or suspected obstacles
• Pre-hindsight: I achieved my goal and everything was bad; why?
• Button test: I can push a button to achieve my goal. Any reluctance?
• What’s bad about getting better at this?
• What’s good about the status quo?
• Spend five minutes inhabiting the unpleasant present. Can it be made
livable, if left unsolved?

Generating possible solutions
• Ten terrible ideas for step one
• Times when I’ve felt this way before, and what got me out of it
• What are the prerequisite subskills for success? How can I get them?
• Pick a time when I didn’t navigate this well, and rewrite it. Where do
I make changes, and what are they?
• Create five to ten relevant TAPs

Hacks/shortcuts to victory
• Generate a narrative for why this has been useful or necessary or helpful
to me in the past, but why that isn’t true any longer (i.e. why I no
longer need the crutch)
• Explain why this is a particularly good moment for me to make a big
shift or tackle this problem
• Imagine my future successful self looking back and encouraging me,
having reaped all the benefits. What do I say to myself?
• Think of a skill I’m already good at, and explain how this skill is really
just a transformation of that one
• Meditate for five minutes on why solving this is useful
• Decide that I’m just not going to fail.