We Are Not Negotiating Today

Metaphorical Narrative

A phantom boardroom flickers into being.
Chairs pulled out. Papers stacked. Voices whispering: “Should we see them again? Is it safe to visit that place? How dangerous is it out there?”

But you never called this meeting.
The boat they offer doesn’t exist.
The ocean isn’t there.
This is theater, staged by fear, asking you to rehearse betrayals that never need to happen.

Core Insight

The ego disguises fear as negotiation, as if calibrating danger could guarantee safety.
But pause and ask the two piercing questions:

• Whose assignment is this?
• Planning for what?

The answer cuts clean: this is not your assignment. It belongs to fear.
And the planning leads nowhere — because there is nothing real to plan for.

EF Control ends the charade.
EF Override is the act of collapsing the boardroom, refusing the papers, and reclaiming choice.

Ownership is simple: two things matter, ninety-eight belong in the bin.
Say it clearly: “We are not negotiating today. We are not fear planning today.”

EF is your executive function.

Saturday Experiment

1. Pick Your Two: Write down the two actions that genuinely matter today.
2. Bin the 98: Visualize every other “assignment” as crumpled papers tossed away.
3. EF Override Ritual: When phantom negotiations appear, cut them off with the question:
   “Whose assignment is this? Planning for what?”
   Then repeat out loud: “We are not negotiating today.”

Sunday Reflection

• In third person: How did they notice that the negotiations were never their assignment?
• What shifted in their body when EF Control shut down the false planning?
• How did their two chosen actions bring more ownership and less fear?