Finally: Don’t Just Prompt the Machine. Prompt Yourself.


You’ve learned to bend the AI to your will. Now it’s time to turn the lens inward. The most powerful prompt you’ll ever write isn’t for a model—it’s for your own life.

What Story Are You In?

Every day you’re living a narrative crafted by countless prompts: cultural scripts, career expectations, even your morning routine. But who set the scene?

  • The Default Plot: Wake up. Work. Consume. Sleep. Rinse. Repeat.
  • The Chosen Quest: Wake up. Create. Challenge. Grow. Repeat with purpose.

Pause. Identify your current storyline. Is it the one you’d pick if you held the pen?

Who’s Writing It?

Too often we hand our story to others:

  • Your company’s KPIs
  • Your industry’s jargon
  • Social media’s dopamine loops

These external authors draft chapters for you—chapters that may not reflect your true desires. It’s time to grab back the pen.

Prompt Yourself

Treat your life like a canvas for your own best prompts. Each morning, ask:

  • “What do I want to create today?”
  • “What voice will I choose for my story?”
  • “What unexpected detail will I inject?”

Write these prompts in a journal, on a sticky note, or in a quick voice memo. Then, act on them deliberately.

Exercises for Self-Prompting

  1. Morning Pages: Spend five minutes answering:
    “If today were a cocktail, what would be its ingredients?”
    Use those ingredients as your daily focus.
  2. Midday Check-In: Ask:
    “What would Malloy do right now?”
    (Hint: Enthusiasm plus a willingness to chase new things.)
  3. Evening Reflection: Journal:
    “Which prompts served me today? Which defaults snuck by?”

These self-prompts keep you aligned with your own narrative rather than someone else’s.

Why the Hell Not?

If you’re not writing your own story, you’re living someone else’s draft. And drafts are meant to be revised.

  • Reclaim agency. You are the primary author of your life.
  • Cultivate curiosity. Healthy doubt about defaults sparks innovation.
  • Own your weirdness. It’s the signature no one else can replicate.

“If it’s not you writing your story—why the hell not?”

Let that challenge drive you. Every moment is an opportunity to rewrite the narrative, to set bold prompts for yourself, and to live with intention.

Epilogue: Your Next Chapter

The manifesto ends here, but your journey begins now. Take these rules—prompts as spells, craft as practice, life as context—and apply them to the most important project you’ll ever work on: yourself.

So close this website and ask:

“What comes next?”

Then write it.


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