5 - loops
“Every habit and capability is confirmed and grows in its corresponding actions, walking by walking, and running by running . . . therefore, if you want to do something, make a habit of it.”
— Epictetus
Imagine you want to buy a new car. At the dealership you look at all of the familiar models, but you’re just not interested. As you’re about to leave, something catches your eye. You see a car that you’ve never seen before. You approach it and marvel at its sleek design. This is not an impulse buy, it’s the car that was designed for you. You purchase it, there and then.
Once you have it in your possession, something strange happens, which makes you question the nature of reality. You’d never seen the car before, and are sure that you’re the only person in town that has it. But you start to notice other people have it too. You see it around you on a regular basis: in your town, your neighbourhood, and then at every red light it’s pulling up alongside you. It’s as if other people suddenly started buying the same car because you did.
Perhaps you started a trend and everyone is copying you. Is that likely?
Could you be the unwitting star of your own secret reality TV show? Or could it be that you never paid attention to reality?
What’s actually happening is that you are experiencing blue car syndrome – a mix between frequency illusion and selective attention. It’s not that these cars manifested everywhere after you bought yours, or that the universe started following your lead. It’s that these things were always there, and your selective attention blocked them out. You had so many other things occupying your mind that you never saw something that was right there in front of you. Now that it has been added to your scope of reality, you see it everywhere.
It’s the same thing with looped behaviours.
Once you become aware of the four loops, you will start to notice them in everything. In your immediate circle of family and friends, casual acquaintances, and even in the background characters in your life. Most importantly though, you’ll see them clearly in yourself.
This is a positive thing, as awareness is the first step to development. However, having the ability to identify the different loops doesn’t make you an expert, or able to change them yet. You will need to learn about each of them in detail, specifically:
the reasons for their existence
the symptoms that indicate the type of loop you are in
the tools to apply for each one
You will know with authority whether to develop, diminish or derail the loop. In later posts we will go into more detail in each area, but for now, here is an introduction to the four types of looped behaviours.
Of the four types, two are positive and two are negative. We begin with the negative.
Negative
First we have:
Bullshit loops
This type of loop is an artificial limitation that is imposed on the self. Tellingly, it is a set of looped behaviours which are locked together by a key point of bullshit (POB). This is the first loop that we will look at in detail because it’s the easiest to break, and breaking POBs results in rapid change. By attacking these first we will gain experience in identifying, understanding and breaking loops.
Next are:
Destructive loops
These are a set of looped behaviours which are destructive to you in either long or short term, connected predominantly to the areas of health, wealth, and relationships. This type of loop will cause damage to you unless it is stopped. In the case of longer term destructive loops, the damage may be slow to build, but can be very difficult to break once enough traction has been gained. Getting out of destructive loops is challenging, so they will be tackled second, (once you have sufficient experience in handling loops). Though a hard climb, the reward after breaking destructive loops reflects your effort, and the changes you experience will be liberating.
In breaking down the negative loops, we create opportunities to develop the positive loops.
Positive
They are as follows:
Benefit loops
These are a set of looped behaviours that have a positive impact on your life in some way, again, mainly connected to health, wealth and relationships. This type of loop results in benefits to you in both the short and long term, however the short term usually doesn’t become obvious until after the fact. This type of loop should be maintained, if not strengthened, to gain maximum benefit.
Once developmental loops have been locked in, we will move on to the final type of loop. This final loop is the most challenging, but also the most beneficial:
Growth loops
These are a set of looped behaviours which take you beyond your comfort zone and change you at a fundamental level. More than the destructive loop, these are immensely challenging, but when completed, the results are beyond comprehension. You will essentially be able to change who you are. While growth loops stem from developmental loops, the challenge contained within them means that they will be covered last, as you will need to use all of your experience in tackling them.
Understanding each of the four loops is the key to creating the answer to your internal question.
You know yours.
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Now that you know the main loop types, you need to know the plan of action. We will work through the loops one at a time, specifically:
what they are
why they exist
the symptoms of each one, and
what to do in each loop.
You’ll be given challenges in each subsection so that you can apply loop theory on yourself. At the end of each section, you’ll be given a mission which will take into account all you’ve done before. This means it’s essential to do all of the exercises without skipping ahead, even if they seem easy. Grabbing easy wins builds motivation for difficult tasks, and accomplishing difficult tasks builds momentum to conquer huge challenges.
Motivation and momentum are key points throughout the journey, as is failure. At several points in the series, there will be sections focusing solely on these topics. You will learn how each of them works, and how they can be used within loop theory.
So now that we know what we are working with, let’s get to work.
The first thing we need to do is plan how we will shovel bullshit efficiently.
Next - plan