Aware + Story + Action

Sometime last year, I created the ASA framework to help me figure out something I was working through.

ASA is an acronym for Awareness, Story, and Action.

The concept isn’t entirely new. And the situation I used it for isn’t entirely unique to me. Over the course of human history, many others have faced similar challenge and they’ve found other ways of dealing with it. Sharing what worked for me.

ASA is a cycle, not a step-by-step process.

Awareness is about learning to see what we are yet to see, hear what we are yet to hear and understand what we are yet to understand. It’s about seeing reality as it is, not as we hope it will be. Or as someone I love reminds me, it is about seeing and loving what is.

Awareness is the first step. Many problems lose their intensity just because we become more aware of what reality shows us.

The next phase is about identifying the stories we are telling ourselves. We tell ourselves stories to live. And we have stories tied to what we want to do, and who we want to be.

Some stories are empowering. Some hinder us from getting what we want. We won’t know if we don’t investigate the stories we believe. Especially the ones we’ve ingrained to heart unconsciously.

And we can replace unhelpful stories with new ones that empower us to become better.

Becoming aware and believing useful stories only help solve our problems when we take action.

Sometimes, the best action is just to change our position. Many problems become irrelevant when we change our position.

Other times, it’s to remove something. Or add something. Or do nothing.

Whatever the action is, it’s worth asking: does this edify your spirit? If it doesn’t, take another look at the action, and start the ASA cycle again.