How Entrepreneurs Can Program Their Lives for Success

As intelligent and complex human beings, we can learn, unlearn, and relearn. We also have the rare ability to self-program at will. But accomplishing this requires investigation into your own personal development so you can build on your strengths and grow from your weaknesses. To program yourself to be a virus-free, optimized human operating system, you must:

1. Learn how you work best.

   Taking the time to learn about the layers of your being and personality — how you function at every level, from physical to spiritual to emotional — is an important step in setting up your operating system. You must pay attention to how each system works in the moments when you’re at your best. This will give you insight into how you naturally learn and work best so you can apply these practices as you reprogram yourself.

2. Decide what you want in life.

   Think about what you want most out of life, and build a framework around those goals. Do you want to run your business in the global marketplace? Expand your company’s products and services? Learn to handle stress — or, better yet, eliminate all but useful stress? Achieve a perfect balance between work and family? To live the life of your dreams — whatever that entails — you need to know exactly what that life looks like.

3. Identify distinct success markers.

   Consider the times when you felt most successful and truly at your best. Maybe it was your entrepreneurial inspiration or a high note in your career. Then, describe these experiences beyond superficial adjectives like “great.” Use physical and emotional markers; say, “My lower abdominals flexed” or “My focus shifted outward.” These types of markers will help you reproduce this state of success and use it as a baseline for future entrepreneurial endeavors.

4. Find solutions to problems.

   Pay attention to what’s not working in your life, especially areas that are keeping you from accessing the deeper, fuller satisfaction at the core of your being. For entrepreneurs, business solutions will often come more easily when you identify and delete problem areas in your personal and professional lives and figure out how to unify the two.

5. Conquer negative emotions.

   Everyone feels fear, nervousness, sorrow, and a host of “negative” emotions. But when you’re reprogramming your operating system, you must teach yourself to face, embrace, and overcome these feelings rather than allow them to completely freeze you up. Instead of succumbing to anxiety when you encounter a difficult event, teach yourself to relax as a natural response. That way, every time you face a problem, you will come out better and stronger.

6. Become a self-programmer.

   Once you get a good idea of what you want in life and how to get there, you have to take control of your actions, values, beliefs, and self-operation. The trick is identifying various programs that are guiding your behavior and updating them so they’re working for you, not against you. Develop these programs, practice them, and master them; soon, they will fade into the background until they’re simply instincts.

We were designed to win by housing an intricate, intelligent technology within our own bodies. Don’t fool yourself by thinking that shortcuts or “five-minute fixes” can replace long-term solutions — we’re far more complex than that. Installing or rebooting your human operating system in a way that honors that complexity is the best way to build your natural powers and strengths into a life of personal and professional happiness, fulfillment, and success.

This article has been edited and condensed.

Devon White is the founder and lead developer of the Human Operating System, a platform for self-optimization and the sharing of behavioral software on individual, corporate, and global scales. He loves to stay engaged on multiple levels and also maintains executive positions at both Huddled Masses and CultureFlow. Connect with @devonwhite on Twitter.