I used to ask a question each night.
“What could be improved?”
This seems productive. It’s dangerous.
“What could be improved?” includes things outside your control.
Such as the weather, traffic, the stock market and others’ behavior.
Now I ask:
“What could you have improved?”
One word changes everything.
—
| “What could be improved?” | “What could *you* improve?” |
| “The traffic was bad.” | “I left too late.” |
| “The market crashed.” | “I didn’t set a stop loss.” |
| “They reacted poorly.” | “I communicated poorly.” |
“You” is a forcing function for awareness, accountability and improvement.
Sometimes, you’ll realize there was nothing you could have done.
You can make good decisions and things can still go wrong.
You can prepare but you cannot predict.
In these cases, the outcome was truly out of your hands.
Words are software for your brain. Patch your prompts.
🫵
What can you improve?