Stage 2. Stop Breaking Things
Stage 2 - Stop Breaking Things
Category 3 - Week 2
Category 3 - Theft and Appropriation
Week 2 - Catching: scoring begins, using the 0-4 scale. The goal is not to stop the behavior yet - it's to notice precisely when awareness arrives: before, during, or only after.
"Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need." - Ephesians 4:28
Score Theft and Appropriation each evening using the same scale. An honest 1 beats an unearned 0.
Today's Practice
Score today's day honestly.
Evening Sit + Scoring
10-minute sit. Score.
- 0: Didn't catch it, ran on autopilot.
- 1: Caught it after - retrospective awareness, real but late.
- 2: Caught it during, aware, and kept going anyway - harder to admit than a zero or a one, more useful than either.
- 3: Caught it during and changed course - the target.
- 4: Saw the setup forming and chose differently before it started - rare, and worth noting when it happens.
"While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment to them. Attachment leads to desire, and desire breeds anger." - Bhagavad Gita 2.62
There's a specific impulse right before you take more than your share of a conversation, or reach for credit that isn't fully yours. Get familiar with its texture.
Today's Practice
Score today. After any instance today, write one sentence describing the moment right before it.
Evening Sit
10-minute sit. Score.
"Do not defraud or rob your neighbor. Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight." - Leviticus 19:13
By now you know the shape of this pattern from the categories before it: every instance arrives pre-packaged with an explanation that lets you keep believing you're not the kind of person who does this. In this category, the story tends to run a few familiar routes. "I contributed too" - used to justify taking sole credit for work that was actually shared, as if a partial contribution licenses a full claim. "They didn't seem busy" - used to justify taking someone's time without asking, as if the absence of a visible objection is the same as consent. "I'd do the same for them" - used to justify taking more from a conversation than you put into it, as if a hypothetical future favor settles the account in advance. Each sounds reasonable in the moment. That's what makes it effective.
Today's Practice
When you catch this category today, notice which specific version of the story shows up - and score it without letting the story change the number.
Evening Sit + Scoring
10-minute sit. Score.
- 0: Didn't catch it, ran on autopilot.
- 1: Caught it after - retrospective awareness, real but late.
- 2: Caught it during, aware, and kept going anyway - harder to admit than a zero or a one, more useful than either.
- 3: Caught it during and changed course - the target.
- 4: Saw the setup forming and chose differently before it started - rare, and worth noting when it happens.
"It is more blessed to give than to receive." - Acts 20:35
Weekly Question
Where did I assert my needs at the expense of another this week?
Write one specific instance from this category this week: one moment, one person, exactly what happened.