iCharlesSubscribeLetterAccompanying: Worksheet · Summary
Natural Law and Happiness: Remove Before You Add
Charles Botensten
Worksheet
The Witness Stand: Remove Before You Add
Every area of my life where I moved closer to natural law got better.
Sleep, food, movement, relationships, work: which one is furthest from how you were made?
What has that distance cost you in the last 30 days? Write a number, a name or a date.
What have you added to fix it: the purchase, the app, the pill?
Write the line you tell yourself that keeps it in place, like “It's just a game on Sunday.”
Deep down, you already know. What is the one thing to remove first?
Where and when will you do your one-minute review each day?
Pick one: an action with a date, an if-then, or a block on your calendar.
Accompanying
Remove Before You Add
Pleasure, purchases and more apps keep promising happiness. Natural law points the other way.
From “Natural Law and Happiness: Remove Before You Add”
**We live in an addition economy.**
Pleasure, purchases and more apps keep promising happiness. Natural law points the other way.
## The problem
Almost everything around us pulls us away from how we were made, and we pay for the distance.
## The usual fix
Then we look for something to add that fixes it. Adding is always easier than removing.
## The move
You already know what has to go. Do a one-minute review every day. Then pick the top one. One change, not five.
## Addition vs Subtraction
- **Addition:** A new iPhone · The newest AI model · A pill
- **Subtraction:** Social media off the phone · Crappy food out · Distractions out
## Worth keeping
- Deep down, you already know.
- Habits are things that happen to us. Routines are things we do.
- Being content is the most pleasurable feeling in life.
## The review
1. What do I need to stop doing?
2. What do I need to start doing?
3. What do I need to continue doing?
4. Then pick the top one.Questions people ask
- Is “The Witness Stand: Remove Before You Add” free?
- Yes. The whole worksheet is on this page, in full: no paywall, no email box, nothing held back. Copy it and use it.
- Where does it come from?
- Charles Botensten built it and uses it himself. He explains it in “Natural Law and Happiness: Remove Before You Add”, published October 23, 2026.
- How do I use it?
- Print it and answer on paper, or press ChatGPT or Claude and answer one question at a time. Then do the one thing your answers point to this week.