I recommend reflecting on your experience with this chapter’s exercise before continuing. You can reflect about anything you found relevant, but here are some questions you may want to consider:

How did applying The Method differ the second time?

Did you have more confidence?

Did you find yourself more flexible?

How did changing yourself feel this time? Did you feel fake?

Where and how might you apply your experience in the rest of your life?

Data from Exercise

Mastering The Model and The Method take experience, so this exercise repeats The Method with a more challenging application. That is, the exercise is to apply the same steps to a situation that is more difficult to transform.
“More challenging” usually means choosing a situation that will Take longer to transform, Involve more intense emotions, or Affect more parts of your life.
Everyone’s situations are unique, so only you know what situations challenge you more.

I recommend paying closer attention to the reward you feel when your environments, beliefs, emotions, and behaviors fall in sync. Does it come as soon as you start? Before you achieve your external goals? How does it feel? Can you accelerate or increase it?
When I teach in person, some students don’t get The Method to click the first time. If you felt that chapter 15 didn’t click, I recommend for you what I recommend for them, which is to apply The Method this time to an easier situation. That usually means one that is faster, less intense, and more self contained.
When it works I recommend to keep applying The Method to more challenging situations as you gain experience.

What to Do

Choose a situation in your life you’d like more emotional reward from, ideally one you can change in the time you plan for this exercise (for most, about a week).

0. Know your emotional system.

1. Write out that situation’s environment, beliefs, emotions, and behaviors and your constraints.

2. Conceive of new emotions you could have in such situations.

3. Conceive of environments, beliefs, and behaviors that will create the new emotions without triggering what you won’t or can’t do.

4. Implement the new environments, beliefs, and behaviors.

When you feel emotional reward, indulge in that feeling to help motivate you to do it again. When you don’t, or you feel emotional punishment, try to acknowledge it and move on to avoid discouraging yourself.

Again, doing the exercise takes effort. You may feel fake until the new situation gives you reward. If you started with self-awareness, you will emerge more genuine and authentic than before you started.