Oil for the LampHow it works
Everything in a day either gives you energy or spends it. The program sorts life into three tiers by that one question and follows the fuel.
The three tiers
Get fueled
Mentorship received, learning, spiritual practice and the inner life. Two deliberate, high-attention hours a day. It can be face to face, a phone or video call, or a recorded talk the mentor picked.
Tier I is the part of the program that does the healing. It is never skipped.
Live your life
The whole range of daily life: work, rest, meals, money, friends. It is where progress shows. Organized or disorganized is the honest read of how things are going.
Two hours of deliberate attention; the tier itself fills the rest of the day.
Give back
Service to others. First, simple service of any kind. Later, mentoring someone whose life is less organized.
Only after a stabilization milestone that the mentor judges. Nobody pours for long from an empty reserve.
The rhythm of contact
- At the start: mentor and mentee meet or talk 2 or 3 times a week.
- Once things settle: about once a week.
- Every month: a short review together. Keep it weekly, move to monthly, or go back to 2 or 3 times a week.
- No fixed end date. The relationship lasts as long as it is useful to both.
The arc of a mentee
- Get the fuel steady. Two deliberate Tier I hours a day, and contact 2 or 3 times a week.
- Watch daily life organize. The eight areas below begin to order themselves. That is the sign the fuel is taking hold.
- Taper contact. Weekly meetings, a monthly review, no fixed end.
- Open Tier III. After the mentor judges the stabilization milestone, the mentee starts to serve: simple service first, then mentoring others.
- Pass it forward. The graduate mentors someone new in Tier I. Serving others is one of the things that keeps a person steady.
If things slip, the mentor can bring contact back to 2 or 3 times a week. That is a normal part of the path.
The eight areas of daily life
| Area | What "organized" looks like |
|---|---|
| Sleep | Regular hours; rested on waking; no all-night cycles |
| Work or occupation | Showing up; duties met; time structured |
| Hygiene | Daily care of body, clothing and living space |
| Finances | Bills tracked and paid; spending deliberate, not impulsive |
| Nutrition | Regular meals; food chosen, not defaulted |
| Relationships | Reciprocal, healthy contact with peers; isolation avoided |
| Spiritual practice | Daily prayer, study or worship, renewed and not lapsing |
| Exercise | Regular movement; the body used and cared for |
Each area gets an honest read each week: organized, partly organized or disorganized. No scores. Spiritual practice is talked about with the mentor and never stored on the server; a mentee who wants to track it can keep it on their own device.
Learning material
There is no new curriculum. Mentors choose existing public material to suit each person: talks from faith leaders, recorded lectures, TED talks, online courses, Stoic writing. The app keeps the title and the link, and the material stays where it was published.