What does it mean that positive patterns deserve attention too?

Do not only look for patterns to fix — also identify and protect patterns that serve you.

Example: You spend your weekly review cataloging missed deadlines, unresolved conflicts, and procrastination episodes. But you never notice that every Monday morning you spend 20 focused minutes planning the week before opening email — and that this is the single habit most correlated with your best weeks. Because you never named it, you never protected it. When a new meeting lands on Monday at 8am, the pattern dies silently. You lose your best performing habit because you were only tracking your worst ones.

Try this: Open your journal or notes from the past two weeks. Instead of scanning for problems, answer one question: What went well, and what was I doing just before it went well? Write down three positive patterns — routines, habits, environmental setups, or sequences of actions that preceded good outcomes. For each one, write one sentence describing the trigger that initiates it. You now have a short list of patterns worth protecting.