Friends, I have a question for you.
Do you have an operating manual to live your life?
Hard question. But the truth is – all of us are guided by our own operating manual in our head.
Our operating manual provides us with a sense of certainty, a sense of structure and helps us carry on our everyday living with certainty and clarity, and devoid of confusion. So, we do have an operating manual.
Now, where did we get the manual from?
Everything from our personal choices, our career choices, our life styles, our habits and values are guided by this operating manual. We will say with certainty that “this is the way I do it”.
Many of us might have inherited it from our families including our parents. Some elements form our early educational experiences and some from our early organizational experiences.
Some of us might have challenged what was given to us and written it all by ourselves.
The early days in our life are especially very crucial in helping us draft our operating manuals.
Here is my second question.
When is it that you last revisited and revised your operating manual?
This is a difficult question because quite often we tend to be wedded to our operating manual. We tend to be fearful about the consequences of making constant changes in how we want to live our life, how we want to make career choices, what we think is right and wrong. We may even be superstitiously attached to our operating manuals.
But not many are open to revisiting it.
In this festive season, may I invite you to think of your own operating manual and deeply reflect about one thing in it that you may want to rewrite.
Season’s Greetings and Best Wishes.
Youtube Video: https://youtu.be/lgE8aDAOS9Q
