A conversation that turned into a framework
“Hey! How are you doing today?”
Mastt!
“That’s great! What’s keeping you mastt?”
Six things, actually. Controlling what is in my control. Reacting in a way that I would be proud of on camera. Choosing meaning over comfort. Caressing the work, not just completing it. Staying curious like a deer. And chasing hard things even when I don’t have to.
“Woah. That’s loaded.”
It is. But here’s the thing: when the going gets tough, the tough must get going. That is the only real principle of a mastt life. The opposite of mastt is not sad. The opposite of mastt is lazy and defeated.
“That’s heavy. Explain.”
Gladly. Here’s a model I’ve been living by.
The C.R.E.A.T.E.A Framework
Seven thinkers. Seven rules. One acronym to hold them all.
C: Control (Marcus Aurelius)
Every morning, sort life into two piles: things in your control, and things that are not. Your effort, your attention, your attitude, the words you choose, the hours you protect: these are yours. The opinion of your skip-level manager, the traffic, the global economy: not yours. Act only on your pile. Release the rest without drama. Most of our suffering is paid in advance for problems that never arrive, over things we never controlled.
R: Reaction (Epictetus / Marcus Aurelius)
Your reaction is not a reflex. It is a choice. Pause between the event and the response. Notice the story you are telling yourself about what just happened: the colleague who “disrespected” you, the project that “went wrong.” Is the story true? Is there a better interpretation? The gap between stimulus and response is where your character lives. Widen that gap deliberately.
E: Ensues (Viktor Frankl)
Happiness cannot be chased directly. It ensues from purpose. Pour yourself into something larger than your comfort: a person, a craft, a cause, a team you are building. The moment you stop asking “am I happy yet?” and start asking “is this meaningful?” the happiness question answers itself, quietly, from the side.
A: Acknowledge the Shadow (Carl Jung)
When you overreact, when someone triggers you, when you feel an irrational spike of anger or envy: get curious rather than defensive. Ask, what does this say about me? The parts of ourselves we refuse to look at tend to run our lives from the basement. Integrate them. Name them. A shadow acknowledged loses half its power.
T: Tao / Flow (Lao Tzu)
Wu Wei: effort without strain. Work with the natural rhythm of a task rather than forcing it. There is a difference between hard work and brute-force grinding. The carpenter who knows the grain of the wood cuts cleanly; the one who ignores it splinters everything. Know where you are in the rhythm of a project. Flow is not laziness. It is intelligent effort.
E: Ever a Beginner (Richard Feynman)
Say “I don’t know” with pride. Ask “why” like you are five years old. Explain things simply, or admit you cannot explain them yet: that is how you know whether you actually understand. The beginner’s mind stays porous, absorbing what the expert’s mind has already decided it knows. The most dangerous sentence in any high-performing team is “We already tried that.”
A: Attitude (Viktor Frankl)
Even when everything else is stripped away: the project, the role, the title, the comfort—you still choose your attitude toward what remains. Bitter or steady. Closed or useful. Contracted or open. This choice is always yours. It is, as Frankl wrote from inside circumstances most of us will never face, the last of the human freedoms.
How to actually use this
This is not a poster. It is a daily operating rhythm.
Morning: Scan for meaning. Ask yourself: what is the one thing today that actually matters? (That is the E.)
During any challenge: Run C and R first. What is in my control here? What is the story I am telling myself? Sort the pile before you act.
When stuck or frustrated: Check A, T, E: acknowledge what is being triggered in you, stop forcing the thing, ask a genuinely beginner question.
Evening: One reflection on attitude. Did you choose bitter or steady today? Either way, no judgment: just notice, and reset.
Memory anchor
C.R.E.A.T.E. A better life.
Every time things feel heavy, run the acronym. Not as a checklist: as a compass.
Mastt is not a mood. It is a posture. It is available on your worst days precisely because it is not about how you feel; it is about how you move.