current reality tree [1121.1999]

I just put together a current reality tree for my life. (sorry, I couldn't find a visual example)... essentially, you first create a list of about 10 problems you're having in life, and then you start figuring out cause-effect relationships between them. The goal is to be able to trace most of your problems back to one or two sources. If you try it, you may find it's not as difficult as it seems.

I used a list of about 30 problems I'm currently dealing with, and was rather surprised to discover that all of them could be traced back to one or both of 2 general causes. (in my case, they were not making my goals compelling enough, and my tendency to avoid conflict). This was especially surprising, given that my list of problems included things such as two of my friends not getting along with each other, my diminishing savings, technical problems with my various websites, and issues I've been having with meeting girls.

In my case, I wrote each problem on a little piece of paper, and began rearranging them on a larger sheet, drawing arrows and adding in additional steps in the cause/effect chain when needed.. By convention, causes go towards the bottom, effects towards the top, but arrows can go in any direction, as there can be feedback loops, etc.. Then I glued them all down.

I see now I could have gotten the same result with just the recommended 10 problems. I think this reflects how few patterns of behaviour I really use, and how much of my life those patterns influence. The simple fact that we usually rely on only a few patterns (metaprograms?) means that often, many of a person's problems are related.

A current reality tree doesn't look at things that are going right. (you save that for a future reality tree - this all comes from Eli M. Goldratt's business book, "It's not Luck", btw..) .. I suspect that these two "roots of my problems" also do a great deal of good for me. Weak goals and avoiding conflict are both great tools for blending in and being comfortable, for example.

The next step, of course is to take action and make changes... I'm not there yet.. but I wanted to write this up and maybe spark some discussion...