T/P/S – Doubt, Accountability, and Managing Blindspots
From JP | 06.19.2025
This week has been busy, self-reflective, and generally quite productive. There are a lot of moving parts for me at this particular junction, but I’ve also managed to acquire and create tools to help me retain awareness and perspective on my goals.
Thorns – Characters Who Doubt
I’m revisiting an audiobook from one of my favorite fantasy trilogies, and I’m unfortunately finding one of the characters a bit grating.
She is part of an army of thousands who are on a military campaign that is blatantly unwise by conventional strategy, but is deemed necessary to fulfill a prophecy that is the world’s last hope for survival. She is the one person who doubts the validity of the prophecy. Her reasoning for doing so is initially reasonable, but she begins to spiral in a way that the other characters seem unable to stop, even after repeated reassurance.
I’m not sure why I feel so annoyed by it, but I think it has to do with the fact that she is put in opposition towards numerous characters that I’ve come to enjoy more than her, which is unfortunate. It just feels like she assumes that those characters are easily fooled or unable to see the things she can, but it makes her come off as a paranoid child (which she technically is, but not in a way that is as fun to read as her earlier scenes up to this point).
Petals – Accountability Partners
Accountability partners are the real deal. Without the externally-imposed deadline pressure of an educational institute, having a group of non-judgmental friends that you can speak your short-term goals to is incredibly motivating. I made a simple Discord server for my writing group where we get to share updates and discussions between semi-monthly meetings. It makes me really wish that I tried to form this sort of thing during college. Might have helped me do a little better. Oh well, better late than never.
Seeds – Life’s Hunger Bars
I’m terrified of blindspots when it comes to trying to navigate the present and prepare for the future. I’m always worried that there’s some facet of my life that is withering, or that I should have initiated a long time ago.
My answer to that this week has been to develop what I’ve been calling “Life Domains”. You can think of them as health, hunger, and progress bars in video games. They encompass things such as Physical Well-being, Relationships, Finances, Career, etc. Together, they’re meant to create a comprehensive list of the elements of my life that require my attention. I have over twenty such domains on my list, and I plan to review each of them in a sort of “Domain Audit” that will help me clarify my goals, identify current good and bad practices, and dial in on next actionable steps. It’ll be a lot of work (I’m anticipating around 3-4 hours) but I’m really looking forward to it.
That’s all for this week!
Fill up those health and hunger bars,
JP Violet
The Path Behind — A postscript
The most powerful anchor activity for me has been the combination of my morning commute and a sequence of small actions and questions for myself I’ve been calling Admin Time (inspired by the practice used by physicians). Together, they’ve been effective in serving as a launchpad for productive work blocks.
The end of my commute serves as a space to transition from the pressures of the morning and into the day’s pursuits. Admin Time helps me ground myself and mentally complete the transition that the commute begins. Very helpful stuff. I highly recommend it, and will probably discuss how I use it in further detail in a future post.
JP Violet 