Your manager sends four words asking to talk tomorrow. That is the whole message. By nine that night you have gone back over the last month of your work twice, and you have decided what you will say.
Nothing on this page says the meaning was wrong.
01
Two things that feel like one
What happened is a message asking to talk.
What was added is that it is bad news, and that it is about you.
The evening may have gone the way it did because of the second thing. The message did not ask for any of it.
02
Where this sits in the method
The method this library uses goes through a moment in order: what set it off, what you took it to mean, what you protected, and what you did.
The meaning is the second of those. It can be the easiest one to pass over, since it may not feel like something you did.
This library has one sentence for it. Subtract the story and get curious about the meaning you have added.
The story is the long account of who did what. The meaning is shorter. It is often one sentence, and it is often about you.
03
What the meaning may point to
A meaning you go to first, across moments that have nothing else in common, may point to a rule. Here are two possibilities, among others.
"Being wrong isn't a mistake. It feels like a verdict."
The four words may have been taken to mean that you got something wrong. Under Right the fear is that if you are wrong about this, what else are you wrong about.
Read about Right →"If everyone is okay, then I'm okay."
They may have been taken to mean that someone is upset with you. Under Peace the fear is that someone's disappointment means you did something wrong.
Read about Peace →Say you were right and they were upset anyway. Is that alright?
No, the upset is what counts, is the Peace answer. Yes, being right settles it, is the Right answer.
It could be Ahead, where the fear is that if you stop managing, something goes wrong again, or another rule. It could be no rule at all. Some managers only write that way when something is wrong, and taking it as bad news may be an accurate reading of this one. From one message there is not enough to tell.
That sorting is subtraction. An answer takes away one explanation of the evening, and it confirms nothing.
04
What getting curious is
It is not arguing yourself out of the meaning.
It is noticing that the meaning was added, and being interested in it before deciding anything about it.
Why the method starts from a moment and not from the long account is on Why We Start With the Scene, Not the Story.