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The MOVES Taxonomy: From Knowing to Doing
MOVES is the SPMD implementation taxonomy. The bridge between knowing the intervention and executing it at 0600 on a Tuesday when the pull toward the old pattern is strongest.
Knowing you need to run Clarify does not tell you what to do. MOVES tells you exactly what to do. The taxonomy has five categories: Movement, Operations, Values, Experiential, and Sense. Each category contains a library of clinical implementation tools mapped to specific DRAINS, CLEARS, and 5P Performance Domains.
The named MOVES below are the Initial MOVES delivered by the SPMD Leak Assessment. The complete MOVES database is available in the SPMD Fundamentals Toolkit.
Movement MOVES change your physiological state through the body rather than through cognition. They work when cognitive interventions cannot because the physical state is the bottleneck.
The Pit Stop
DRAINS: Spent | CLEARS: Reset | Domain: Physical Readiness
A timed, structured interruption to a depleting state. Five to ten minutes. No screens. Move. Water. Breathe deliberately. Re-enter only when the timer completes. The Pit Stop is not rest. It is a physiological reset with a defined re-entry point.
The Rest Stop
Taxonomy: Movement and Sense | DRAINS: Spent | CLEARS: Reset | Domain: Physical Readiness
A defined boundary on work followed by genuine restorative action with no screens and a deliberate re-entry process. The Rest Stop ends the working block and begins genuine recovery. Longer and structurally different from the Pit Stop.
Operations MOVES organize the external world to support the target behavior. They work on structure, not motivation. Motivation is unreliable under load. Structure is not.
The Dump and Run
DRAINS: Avalanche | CLEARS: Limit | Domain: Personal Systems
Write down every open commitment currently living in your head. Get them all out. One per line. No organization during the dump. After the dump is complete, identify the single commitment that moves the most important thing forward today. That is your only task until it is done.
The Solo Act
DRAINS: Multiple active | CLEARS: Execute | Domain: All domains compromised
Do one thing. Not a system. Not a plan. One physical action that moves the most important thing forward by one step. Write it down before you close this page. Nothing else matters until that action is complete.
Values MOVES operate at the level of identity and meaning. They work by surfacing what you actually care about rather than what you say you care about, and connecting the avoided task to that reality.
The Aurelius
DRAINS: Drift | CLEARS: Clarify | Domain: Prefrontal Operations
Name the single most important outcome you are working toward this week. Not a task. The outcome. Write it in one sentence. Post it somewhere you will see it before you open anything today. Named for Marcus Aurelius, who wrote his outcomes before acting, consistently, under extreme operational pressure.
The Bulldozer
DRAINS: Resistance | CLEARS: Subtract | Domain: Psychological Flexibility
Identify the one thing you have been avoiding. Name it specifically. Then remove one obstacle between you and starting it before you do anything else. The obstacle removed must be physical or structural. Motivational interventions do not address Resistance. Friction reduction does.
Experiential MOVES use novel input to disrupt the existing pattern. They work by introducing new evidence that contradicts the story maintaining the DRAINS.
The Rosalind Franklin
DRAINS: Identity Lock (Plateaued) | CLEARS: Anchor | Domain: Procedural Competency
Identify one skill, process, or approach in your field that you have not updated or challenged in the last six months. Name it specifically. That is where your growth ceiling is. Find one piece of new information about it today. Named for Rosalind Franklin, whose continuously updated methodology produced the X-ray crystallography work that defined DNA structure.
The Rookie Card
DRAINS: Identity Lock (Novice) | CLEARS: Anchor | Domain: Procedural Competency
Identify the single most important thing you need to learn to perform your current role at the next level. Not a broad area. One specific skill or gap. Find one resource on it today. The Rookie Card is the Novice counterpart of the Rosalind Franklin. A specific gap has a resource. A vague gap has anxiety. It is for people who are not yet what they are becoming and need the next thing to learn rather than waiting to feel ready.
Sense MOVES use internal physiological data as the entry point for intervention. They work by making the body's signals legible rather than treating them as noise to push through.
Additional Sense MOVES
Available in the SPMD Fundamentals Toolkit
The complete Sense MOVES database is part of the
SPMD Fundamentals Toolkit. The Sense category addresses physiological awareness as a performance intervention, distinct from the Movement category which addresses physiological state change.