Positive-Pattern Review
Study the conditions behind your best periods, then reproduce more of them
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 94%
After years of concentrating on broadcasting errors, Humphrey proposes reviewing the periods when life was flowing instead. The input is a real month, year, project, or day when the person felt strong and others wanted to work with them. The review then examines observable conditions: what they did, ate, how they slept, who they spent time with, and what supplied energy. The output is not a celebration or a claim that failure should be ignored. It is a shortlist of conditions worth repeating. Because the transcript presents this as Humphrey's intended mindset shift for 2021 rather than a tested causal system, each condition should be reintroduced as a hypothesis and observed rather than treated as a guaranteed explanation.
Origin
Extracted from The Diary of a CEO
Core principles
- 01Good periods contain repeatable conditions
- 02Failure analysis is not the only route to improvement
- 03Energy, sleep, food, and company can shape performance
- 04A useful review ends with more of what worked
How to run it
- 1
Select a strong period
Choose a specific time when both your experience and your performance were notably good.
Pro tip Use a bounded period rather than a vague memory of better times.
- 2
Reconstruct the conditions
Record your work, food, sleep, relationships, routines, and sources of energy during that period.
Pro tip Look for concrete behaviors rather than flattering personality labels.
Watch out Memory can simplify or romanticize the past.
- 3
Find repeatable patterns
Separate controllable conditions that appeared consistently from one-off circumstances and luck.
Pro tip Choose patterns that recur across more than one good period when possible.
Watch out Correlation in a personal review does not prove causation.
- 4
Repeat and observe
Reintroduce one promising condition and track whether energy or performance improves over time.
Pro tip Change one major condition at a time when practical.
In the wild
A presenter reviews a month when work felt easy and notices regular sleep, prepared meals, fewer draining meetings, and time with encouraging colleagues. They restore the sleep schedule first and observe the next several weeks before changing another variable.
→ The review produces a testable behavior instead of another general resolution to perform better.
Common mistakes
Turning reflection into praise
The useful output is a repeatable condition, not simply reassurance that the period went well.
Assuming every association is causal
A condition that accompanied a good period still needs to be tested before it is credited with the result.
Is it for you?
Best for
People who can identify previous periods of strong energy, happiness, flow, or professional performance.
Not ideal for
Situations where a good outcome was mostly luck or where serious problems still require direct diagnosis.
From the transcript
“why don't we focus more on the good stuff”
“what was i doing what was i eating how was i sleeping who was i spending my time with”
From the episode
Lessons From 50 Of The Worlds Greatest Minds with Jake Humphrey