Major setbacks in development timelines, endless alpha and beta launches, coding crunches and more are all typical challenges in software development. So it seems almost fitting that I should follow similar cycles when writing my moral code. And while I might be hiding behind the humor of analogy to deflect the shame of failing to meet most of my goals for the first year, that’s also part of the irreverent intention of the system. We should never take ourselves so seriously that we can’t laugh it off, course correct, and be better.
Besides, I did learn a lot from the Beta run of the KRNL Cycle, in what I’m thinking now should be called KC-00. But I was expecting a bit too much of myself, excited to walk this path, forgetting I was laying the bricks as I went. For those first couple of months where I was committed to writing some text and following the calendar, I found moments of my life aligning with the aspects I was reflecting on, or even dictating what aspect would come next in the cycle. Whether or not it was mere cognitive bias, my practice and life felt connected.
So the irony hasn’t been lost on me that the moment I posted KC1-7. Discipline, much later than intended, I completely fell off of posting for the rest of the year. Declaring discipline aloud was bound to backfire. But it was hardly related – my prediction in KC1-3. Honesty was simply correct, that I was swept away by responsibilities. If I’m being honest, I’m very proud of what I accomplished in 2022, KC-00, and it was probably more important that I set those foundations and did that healing first. There’s a real chance to build something stable and sustainable this time around.
What to do with the work already done, and the new calendar? Well, considering that this year January 1st itself is a Sunday, it seems like an especially auspicious day to inaugurate the new beginning of the official KRNL Cycle count. It wasn’t intentional, but it works better this way, so it must have been fate, and isn’t that always the story? So it goes that the functional macro-ritual of a calendar made by a man becomes ordained with divine inspiration and the inevitability of the universe’s unfolding.
One of the few things I did complete in KC-00, though, was a mapping of each weekly aspect as the Cycle spirals upward. By applying these immediately to the calendar for KC-1 and allowing myself to pick up where I left off, I can start the year strong with a head start on laying the bricks of the path. By the time I get back to KC1-7. Discipline on February 1st, I’ll have a little backlog of writing and surer footing for the year on my work and organizing schedules. Perhaps then I can reflect and exact the aspect, rather than declare it.
I also feel more strongly this year that there’s no need to be at all public or promotional of the practice. The work here is construction; I’m organizing elsewhere. And so we begin, today, January 1st, KC1, reflecting on both KC1-1. Knowledge and KC1-2. Trust. I can hear myself speaking across the year of successes and failures to myself. I’ll make the adjustments I need, and keep it moving. I trust that I know what I’m doing. There’s nothing more to it. Thanks for reading!