Portals
Four portals through any honest problem.
Not decoration. A working sequence: what is here, where to go (and what to flee), where they clash, what step changes the clash.
I · Map
What is present: people, limits, power, flows, old footprints. No preferred future yet. If you skip this, every ideal becomes a speech.
II · Ideal (and anti-ideal)
Name the good you want — plain enough to keep in view. Also name the anti-ideal: the outcome, habit, or system you need to stay the hell away from. Direction without a forbidden zone is half a compass.
III · Gap
Where map and ideal refuse each other. Small burdens gather here until the path is hard to see. Do not rush past the mismatch; honesty often lives in the friction.
IV · Path
One step that alters the gap. If it cannot be walked soon, it is still a wish. Keep the step small enough to finish and large enough to matter.
Use these portals on polity, energy, craft, money, or a private problem. Related: The walk · Polity · Work.