What does it mean that look for patterns across domains?

The same structure often repeats in your work relationships health and thinking.

Example: A software engineer notices that her team keeps shipping features late. She names it: 'scope creep under ambiguity.' Two weeks later, she catches herself doing the same thing in a difficult conversation with her partner — expanding the scope of the argument into older grievances whenever the core issue feels unclear. Same structure: when the boundary of the problem is ambiguous, she fills the space with more. She checks a third domain — her fitness routine — and finds it there too: on days when the workout plan is vague, she adds exercises until she is exhausted and sore. Three domains, one structural pattern. She did not see it until she looked across all three.

Try this: Pick a pattern you have already named — from your work, your relationships, your health, or your thinking. Write the pattern in structural terms, stripping out all domain-specific detail. (Not 'I procrastinate on quarterly reports' but 'I delay action when the output will be evaluated by people whose judgment I fear.') Then systematically check: does this same structure appear in at least two other domains of your life? Write down what you find. If it appears in three or more domains, you have identified a cross-domain pattern — a structural tendency that is genuinely yours, not an artifact of one context.