---
name: examples
description: What the output actually looks like — daily journal entry and weekly insight report
---

# Example Outputs

What your vault actually produces. **These are fully fictional — invented for this README to show format and tone. Nothing here is drawn from any real person's journal.**

---

## Example: Daily Journal Entry

**Filename:** `Promotion Landed and I Don't Know How to Feel.md`

```markdown
---
creationDate: 2026-03-15T21:30
type: journal
floor: Courage
floor_level: middle
exercise: yes
sleep: 11:00pm
---

Got the promotion today. My manager pulled me aside after standup and told me the title change goes into effect next month. I said thank you. I smiled. I walked back to my desk and sat there for ten minutes trying to figure out why I didn't feel excited.

Two years ago I would have called everyone. I would have screenshotted the HR email and sent it to three group chats. Today I just sat with it. And the first thought that surfaced wasn't "I did it" — it was "now there's less time for the side project."

That's the thing I keep not wanting to say out loud. The promotion is the path I was told to want. The side project is the path I'm actually building. And every step up the day-job ladder makes the side project harder to fit in.

I'm not going to decline. That would be dramatic. But I'm also not going to pretend this is pure good news, because it isn't. It's a trade. More stability, more money, less time, slower path on the thing I actually care about.

Went for a run after work. Couldn't not. Needed the legs moving to think it through. The body always knows before the brain does.

Tomorrow I'm blocking two hours for the side project before I touch any work email. If I don't protect it now, the new title will eat it.

*Floor: [[Courage]] · [[Middle Floors]]*

## Concepts
[[Courage]] | [[Work]] | [[Side Projects]] | [[Trade-offs]] | [[Time]]
```

**What Claude said after saving:**

> Saved as "Promotion Landed and I Don't Know How to Feel.md" — Floor: Courage.
>
> A promotion that feels like a loss isn't a failure of gratitude — it's information. The body knew before the brain did: you sat with it for ten minutes before performing any reaction. Two years ago you would've performed excitement. Today you felt ambivalence and let it exist. That's the movement worth naming.
>
> *Naval: "Compensation is a consolation prize for whatever you'd rather be doing. Pay attention to what you wanted to feel and didn't."*
>
> *Elizabeth Gilbert: "The two-hour block tomorrow is the whole practice. Guard it like the career you actually want depends on it — because it does."*

---

## Example: Weekly Insight Report

**Filename:** `2026-W11 Weekly Insight.md`

```markdown
---
creationDate: 2026-03-16
type: insight
period: weekly
date_range: 2026-03-10 to 2026-03-16
entries_analyzed: 5
primary_floor: Courage
floor_trend: up
exercise_sessions: 3
avg_sleep: 11:00pm
---

## The Week at a Glance

5 entries this week (Mon, Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat). No gaps worth worrying about — Thursday was travel.

**Floor distribution:**
- Courage: 2 entries
- Reason: 1 entry
- Fear: 1 entry
- Acceptance: 1 entry

**Primary floor:** Courage. **Trend:** Up from last week (Fear was primary). You moved from reacting to choosing this week. That's a real shift.

## What Stood Out

The promotion on Friday was a turning point — not because it was a win, but because you didn't perform one. Two years ago you would have broadcast it immediately. This time you sat with the ambivalence and named the trade honestly. That's Courage, not Pride.

The side-project vs. day-job tension is a recurring thread. It showed up in three of five entries this week in different shapes: Monday ("I only got twenty minutes"), Wednesday ("I said yes to an extra meeting again"), and Friday (the promotion itself). The pattern isn't the promotion — it's that every step up the ladder makes the thing you actually care about harder to protect.

You ran three times this week. On the days you ran, your floor was Courage or Reason. On the day you skipped, it was Fear. Small sample size, but it matches the pattern in previous weeks.

## Patterns a Life Coach Would Flag

- You mentioned "block two hours for the side project" on Friday. By Sunday night, check: did you actually protect that block? The commitment is easy to make on a Friday; the test is Monday morning.
- You're describing the day job in past tense more often than you used to — "the job I had" language started creeping in three weeks ago. Notice whether that's clarity or avoidance.
- Running correlates with higher floors this week and the last three weeks. That's not coincidence. Protect the runs.

## Patterns a Therapist Would Explore

- "Two years ago I would have called everyone" is a sentence with real mourning in it. You're noticing a version of yourself you no longer are. That's growth, but it can feel like loss. Sit with which parts you're actually grieving.
- "The body always knows before the brain does" — you've written some form of this three times this month. That's you noticing a new kind of self-trust. Name it out loud so the pattern solidifies.
- The promotion ambivalence wasn't suppression. You felt it, named it, wrote it down, went for a run, made a plan. That's the full cycle without shortcut. Notice how few times in the last year that cycle actually closed.

## Panel Thoughts

**Naval Ravikant:** "Titles are a social bribe. The question isn't whether you accept the promotion — the question is whether the promotion gets you closer to the version of work where no one can fire you because you're no longer dependent on anyone's approval."

**Elizabeth Gilbert:** "The two-hour block is the whole practice. Creative work doesn't compete on grandeur, it competes on consistency. If you protect Monday morning, you protect the side project. If you don't, the side project becomes a thing you talk about instead of a thing you do."

**Peter Attia:** "Three runs this week, sleep at 11pm, stress event on Friday. Your recovery metrics are fine for now, but promotions are a load event — expect HRV to dip for a week or two. Don't interpret the dip as burnout; interpret it as the body absorbing a change."

## Wins to Celebrate

- Named the ambivalence honestly instead of performing excitement
- Ran 3 out of 7 days (on track with monthly average)
- Closed the full emotional cycle on Friday: felt it, named it, moved it, planned for it
- Blocked protected time for the side project for Monday morning

## One Question to Sit With

What does the side project give you that the day job can't, and are you building it to escape the day job or to build something you actually believe in? Those aren't the same question, and the answer changes what you protect first.
```
