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Comdira
The Observatory
Exercise12 minOccupationalRationality

Examine the excuse

Between what you say you want and what you did yesterday sits an excuse. Examine it like an auditor: kindly, but without mercy.

The path

How it works

  1. The gapWrite
  2. The excuse on the tableWriteChoose
  3. The next attemptWrite
This exercise is not about guilt. It is about truth. The goal you say you have and what you actually did yesterday are two data points. The gap between them is almost always explained by an excuse that has never been exa …

Exercise in 3 steps, about 12 minutes. Doing it is part of Premium, which you try free for 7 days with no card. With Premium your answers are saved so you can pick up where you left off and look back at what you wrote.

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The evidence

Why does it work?

Making the gap between a stated goal and actual behavior visible builds on the discrepancy principle in motivational interviewing (Miller & Rollnick), a method with broad RCT support for behavior change. The exercise's specific format comes from clinical practice around underperformance and has not itself been studied for outcomes.

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