Your Personal Operating System

…to know your heart requires knowing what you want.

We all have one. Some of us can define it- others make it up as they go along. A few are trying to improve it- yet many don’t even think about it.

It’s your Personal Operating System. It’s the way you live your day-to-day life. It’s the way you plan for the future and the way you reflect on the past. It defines who you are where you’ve been and where you’re going.

If you know your heart you’ll be amazed to see how the mind will follow. So, to know your heart requires knowing what you want- and how can you know what you want until you know who you are? I love the title of a book I read years ago by Linda Douty. How Can I Let Go If I Don’t Know I’m Holding On? It’s true. Creating a successful personal operating system requires a clear understanding of where you want to go.

Whether you call it your personal operating system, your personal legend, your life intention, your personal strategic plan (my favorite) or your life legacy, you can’t know where you’re going until you know what you want to achieve. YOU. What YOU want to achieve. Not what others tell you what you should do. Got it?

And ponder this: knowing what you want to achieve cannot be discovered until you know what matters to you. What is the hierarchy of what matters most to you? Identify that and you can set your sights in that direction and begin, maybe bit by bit, maybe in even larger steps toward how you want to operate your life.

One of my clients recently shared how she had a family conflict. She went straight to anger and defensiveness. She learned that when she stayed in that space, she started feeling toxic emotions and didn’t like herself. Even if her feelings were valid. I taught her to use the word STOP. Just STOP. And ask herself where she wants to operate from. After some thought, she realized that her own operating system is from kindness and compassion, not anger. The toxicity went away and the love and caring returned.

What’s your operating system?