READER RESOURCES / BOOK GLOSSARY
Frame, Default
and Frame Audit
The language of noticing what shapes your choices.
These working definitions are adapted from I Don’t Remember Choosing This by Don Sanjeewa Alwis. They describe the book’s reflective framework, not clinical diagnoses or a validated psychological assessment. Examples below were created for this companion.
What is a Frame?
The surrounding reward system that determines which moves count: what earns approval, what gets discouraged, and which unwritten rules shape the outcome.
Everyday example: A team praises urgent rescues while giving little recognition to work that prevents emergencies.
Link to this definitionWhat is a Default?
An automatic response you carry into a present situation, often before you have had time to choose.
Everyday example: You agree to another deadline before checking the commitments you already have.
Link to this definitionWhat is a Frame Audit?
A reflection using five questions: what is rewarded, what is punished, what is invisible but decisive, what is capped, and what compounds.
Everyday example: Choose one team or family responsibility and answer the five questions from what you observe.
Link to this definitionHow do Frame and Default differ?
A Frame describes the setting’s rewards and rules. A Default describes the response you bring to that setting. The Frame Audit helps you examine the first while noticing the second. A useful next step is to test one response and observe what changes.
Try the Frame Audit →Updated .