Temporal & Relational

Vitality

Energy, health, and sustainable growth

Vitality represents life force, energy, and the capacity for sustained effort. It's about health—of individuals, teams, organizations, and systems. Vitality asks whether we're building something that can thrive over time, or whether we're burning resources unsustainably. This rune reminds us that short-term wins mean nothing if they exhaust the capacity for future action.

Core Question

"Is this sustainable, and does it generate or deplete energy?"

Beacons

Beacons are guiding principles that help you apply this rune to real decisions.

Liminality

In-between states and transitions - recognizing and navigating threshold moments and periods of change.

Path-dependence

Sequence and lock-in effects - understanding how early choices constrain future options and create momentum.

Sentiment

Emotional and qualitative drivers - attending to feelings, morale, and subjective experiences that fuel or drain energy.

Precedent

Historical foundations and models - learning from past patterns of growth, decline, and renewal.

Empirical Grounding

Data-driven evidence and verification - measuring actual health indicators rather than assuming vitality.

Practical Examples

Managing team workload during a product launch

Application

Apply Vitality to prevent burnout: monitor energy levels, build in recovery time, rotate high-intensity work, celebrate wins to regenerate motivation, and cut scope rather than push people past sustainable limits.

Outcome

The team successfully launches and remains energized for the next challenge, rather than needing months to recover.

Evaluating a growth strategy

Application

Use Vitality to assess sustainability: model cash flow over time, evaluate whether growth requires constant new capital, check if unit economics improve or worsen at scale, and ensure the strategy builds rather than depletes organizational capacity.