BUILD THE BASELINE MAP · TemetNosceAcademy

Jems Lucien

16h • General discussion

BUILD THE BASELINE MAP

You have already chosen one repeating pattern.

Now we are going to slow it down and study what happens inside it.

A pattern can feel like one single reaction:

“I got angry.”

“I became defensive.”

“I procrastinated again.”

“I shut down.”

But when we look more carefully, we can often separate that reaction into different parts. That is what the Baseline Map helps you do.

SITUATION → THOUGHT/PREDICTION → EMOTION → RESPONSE → RESULT

The goal is simple:

Take a real moment from your life and retrace the sequence of events.

This is not a diagnosis.

It is not a final explanation of who you are.

It is a working map that helps you observe your pattern more clearly.

WHY DO WE NEED A MAP?

Imagine that you say:

“Someone humiliated me.”

It sounds like you are describing what happened.

But you may actually be combining two things:

The event and your interpretation of the event.

For example:

Event: My supervisor corrected my work in front of two coworkers.

Interpretation: “They were trying to humiliate me.”

Those are not exactly the same thing.

One describes what happened.

The other describes what the event meant to you.

That does not mean your interpretation is wrong.

It simply means we want to separate the parts so we can study them.

That is what the Baseline Map is designed to do.

THE FIVE PARTS OF YOUR MAP

1. SITUATION

Ask: What actually happened?

Try to describe the event as simply and factually as possible.

For example: “My supervisor corrected my work.”

Instead of: “My supervisor tried to make me look stupid.”

The second statement may be what you believe happened, but it already includes an interpretation.

For now, start with the event.

What happened?

2. THOUGHT OR PREDICTION

Now ask: What did I think, expect, assume, or make the situation mean?

Maybe: “They think I’m incompetent.” or “They’re attacking me.” or I’m going to fail.”

Sometimes you will notice a clear thought. Other times, it may be more like an expectation, impression, or quick assumption.

That is okay.

Write down what you noticed. You are not trying to decide whether the thought was true or false yet. You are simply trying to catch it.

3. EMOTION

Now ask: What did I feel?

Maybe: Anger. Fear. Shame. Anxiety. Frustration. Sadness. Relief.

Try to name the emotion as clearly as you can.

You may also notice something happening in your body: tension, heat, a faster heartbeat, tightness, restlessness, or another physical change. You do not need a long explanation.

For now:

Name what you noticed.

4. RESPONSE

Next ask: What did I actually do?

Maybe you argued.

Maybe you became quiet.

Maybe you avoided the person.

Maybe you checked your phone.

Maybe you stopped working.

Maybe you sent a message immediately.

Maybe you wanted to leave.

The important question is: What did I do, or what did I strongly feel like doing? Again, we are collecting information. We are not judging it.

5. RESULT

Finally, ask: What happened afterward?

Maybe you felt temporary relief.

Maybe the conflict became worse.

Maybe the task remained unfinished.

Maybe you regretted what you said.

Maybe the response helped.

Maybe it created another problem.

Maybe nothing obvious happened immediately.

All of that is useful information.

This part matters because what happens after a response can sometimes affect whether that response happens again.

For example: You feel anxious about a difficult task.

You avoid the task. Your anxiety drops for a while.

That temporary relief may make avoidance easier to repeat the next time a similar situation appears.

So when you study the result, look at both:

What happened immediately?

and What happened later?

LET’S BUILD ONE COMPLETE MAP

Imagine that someone tends to become defensive when receiving criticism.

Saying: “I tend to get defensive when I’m criticized.”

is useful. It tells us what tends to happen.

But now we want to study one specific time when it happened.

Here is the map:

SITUATION

My supervisor corrected my work.

↓

THOUGHT/PREDICTION

“They think I’m not good enough.”

↓

EMOTION

I felt shame and anger.

↓

RESPONSE

I immediately started defending myself and explaining what I had done.

↓

RESULT

The conversation became tense, and I continued thinking about it afterward.

Now we have more information.

Instead of only knowing:

“I become defensive.”

we can begin asking:

What exactly happened before the defensiveness?

What interpretation appeared?

What emotion was present?

What did the person actually do?

What happened afterward?

That is why the map is useful. We are taking something that feels like one reaction and separating it into parts we can observe.

ONE IMPORTANT POINT

Real human behavior is not always as neat as a diagram.

Your brain and body do not necessarily move through five perfectly separate steps.

A thought may appear very quickly.

An emotion and a body reaction may happen almost together. Sometimes you may notice the emotion but not the thought. Sometimes you may react before you can clearly describe what you were expecting.

That is normal.

The map is a learning tool.

It helps us slow down an experience that may have happened very quickly so we can study it.

Do not force your experience to fit the map perfectly.

Record what you can actually notice.

YOUR FIRST MAP IS NOT THE TRUTH

This is very important.

Your Baseline Map is not a final explanation of your behavior.

It is your first attempt to describe what happened.

Later, you may realize: “I thought I was angry, but embarrassment came first” or “I thought I procrastinated because I was lazy, but I notice that I delay mostly when I expect my work to be judged” or “I thought the problem was motivation, but this behavior happens much more when I am tired.”

Good.

That means you found new information.

You are not trying to prove a theory about yourself.

You are building a map that can change as you learn more.

That is how careful observation works.

Observe. Record. Examine. Update.

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BUILD THE BASELINE MAP