The Secretary Series: The Behavioral Level (Patterns and Repetitions)

This episode focuses on how the Secretary function allows us to analyze our own behavior by identifying the repeating patterns and historical context within our personal records. 

High-Value Quotables

[00:22] "When we're recording honestly, we can start to look across the things we have learned or the experiences we've had and articulate patterns and repetitions." 
[01:39] "The memories that you have, regardless of how much you've tried to cultivate them in a open and honest way or in a factual way, are always going to be, uh, imperfect. They are recorded by a mind, the mind of the time." 
[02:26] "The emotional content that accompanies those memories that you recorded when you were a child... very likely is something that, uh, sort of no longer meaningfully applies." 
[05:00] "You begin the process of being able to create useful data for future versions of you that need this kind of support." 

The Core Concept: Analyzing the "Mind of the Time"

Behaviorally, the Secretary provides the data necessary to recognize recurring patterns in our lives. It requires us to understand that our memories are "imperfect" because they were encoded by the "mind of the time"—often a younger, less experienced version of ourselves. By stripping away old emotional content and rationalizations, we can reprocess these memories into useful data for our future selves. 

Key Takeaways:

• Identifying Repetitions: Honest recording is the first step toward analyzing behaviors and articulating where you are repeating the same lessons. 
• The Child Secretary: Recognizing that a memory from childhood was encoded with the limited capacity and insights of a child, meaning the associated emotional "sting" may no longer be relevant. 
• Stripping the Narrative: To solve a current problem, work backwards to strip off unnecessary ego perspectives and rationalizations. 
• Useful Data for the Future: By separating "what happened" from "what I felt," you create a reliable database for future decision-making. 

Reflection Question:

If you looked at your life's "minutes" today, what behavioral patterns would you see repeating over the last five years?

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Creators and Guests

Host

Brian Mattocks

Host and Founder of A Mason's Work - a podcast designed to help you use symbolism to grow. He's been working in the craft for over a decade and served as WM, trustee, and sat in every appointed chair in a lodge - at least once :D

What is A Mason's Work?

In this show we discuss the practical applications of masonic symbolism and how the working tools can be used to better yourself, your family, your lodge, and your community. We help good freemasons become better men through honest self development. We talk quite a bit about mental health and men's issues related to emotional and intellectual growth as well.

[00:00] behaviorally, when we take on the role of secretary, we gain the ability to look across
[00:06] our entire sort of collective memory of our own sort of experience and look for
[00:14] lots of different things. First and foremost, when we're recording honestly, we can start to
[00:22] look across the things we have learned or the experiences we've had and articulate patterns
[00:31] and repetitions. Patterns and repetitions are a great place to start when it comes to analyzing
[00:38] your behaviors from a different role, but you need to be able to collect those insights and the
[00:44] secretary's sort of mental function is the one that does that. So when you're sitting down and you're
[00:49] going, man, I feel like I've learned this already once before. Grab your secretary's ape and put it
[00:56] on, start thinking through the other times that you may have experienced this. Like we discussed
[01:03] yesterday, it's very likely that your memories are encoded with emotional content. Your memories are
[01:11] also going to be encoded with sort of irrelevant factual content, stuff that may or may not have
[01:18] been accurately recorded at the time because you didn't have enough information or context or
[01:23] insight. When we start to look at ways to best leverage the memories that we've recorded,
[01:32] one of the things you're going to want to do is understand that the memories that you have,
[01:39] regardless of how much you've tried to cultivate them in a open and honest way or in a factual way,
[01:46] are always going to be, uh, imperfect. They are recorded by a mind, the mind of the time.
[01:54] So first and foremost, if you remember something from your childhood, uh, even though you might be
[02:00] able to recall it in vivid detail in your adult mind, the, the secretary that recorded at the time
[02:07] was a child, that secretary function that, that encoded that memory in your brain, um, didn't have
[02:14] all of the capacities that you have, didn't have all of the knowledge and insights that you've gained
[02:19] since. And as such, the emotional content that accompanies those memories that you recorded when
[02:26] you were a child, um, very likely is something that, uh, sort of no longer meaningfully applies
[02:33] that if you can step from the, you know, if you can, you can step out of that headspace for a moment
[02:38] that recorded that memory, uh, you might be able to be like, yeah, that was ridiculous. I was really
[02:42] upset about that for reasons I don't fully understand. Let me see if I can break it down
[02:47] and reprocess this sort of referential sort of behavioral analysis, memory analysis, um,
[02:55] seems like, um, a rabbit hole. And quite frankly, it is for most people, the moment you start trying
[03:03] to connect the dots with your memories, uh, and say, this is what caused that. And that's what caused
[03:07] this. You're really getting to a situation where you have to describe the entire operation of the
[03:12] universe in order to explain anything that ever happened. Um, so with that in mind, the interest
[03:18] here for the secretary role is not necessarily, um, to kind of relive the entirety of your life,
[03:25] uh, one chapter at a time or one event at a time. The idea is, um, when you're confronted with a
[03:31] situation that you may not understand or have the context for work backwards through what you remember
[03:37] about it, strip off the emotional content, strip off the unnecessary, uh, rationalizations or the
[03:43] unnecessary ego perspective that comes with it. Um, and, and see if you can approach that memory or
[03:50] that event from a factual perspective. Um, from there, you should be able to then work through maybe the
[03:58] other, uh, other layers that you've encoded with that memory, uh, like the emotional content or like the
[04:05] ego content, but you can do it with a understanding, a grounding in the facts of the event. Um, so that
[04:12] you can process those emotional responses or those other responses from sort of different perspectives
[04:16] in the lodge room and say, okay, well, maybe that was an irrational response given these facts, or maybe,
[04:22] uh, maybe the way I remember this, um, doesn't pay homage to the other people in the room that were
[04:28] trying really hard to do something else at the time, but you can't get there until you can take
[04:34] some of the content sort of separated out, process it, um, and, and separate the, the feelings from
[04:41] the thoughts and then the thoughts from the actual events. Um, when we consciously start to do this
[04:48] for your plans moving forward, when you actively record memory in a way that says, listen,
[04:54] I just need to write down what actually happened. Uh, and then I can write down separately what I felt
[05:00] about what happened. Uh, you begin the process of being able to create useful data for future versions
[05:06] of you that need this kind of support.