# 1.2 Why operating manual Source: https://geoffblades.com/1-2-why-operating-manual/ Published: 2026-05-10 Author: Geoff --- This is the most important work of my life. It may seem silly to you spending all these years on this one thing because it’s a topic I’ve never heard anyone talk about, ever. Even reading thousands of books on these topics and training with masters of change I never saw this. But over decades of work, it became obvious to me this matters most to the quality of your life and to all humanity. Because operating manual you have the secret key you never knew you needed. It’s the master key for unleashing your best and the best for every human being! ## Why? Why this matters so much is the quality of your life is the quality of your mind. How you feel, how you think, the actions you take, your “Internal Life Experience” determines the quality of your life more than anything outside of you. No matter the quality of your “External Life” it’s only as good as you experience inside! And why operating manual matters so much is because your internal experience is happening automatically in you. Read this again because it’s crucial to where we are going here. All these things, how you think, how you feel, how you take action or not is happening automatically in you. This is obviously true but it doesn’t always seem this obviously true. Because the illusion of being conscious is you choose. But all this is happening automatically in you. ## Automaticity Is the gift and curse of being a conscious human being. The gift of automaticity is like habits is like never having to think twice about how you walk or do anything you know to do. Like remember a person’s name or how you open a door or a phone number these things are automatic, aren’t they? Like your heart is automatically pumping blood some 100,000 times a day your brain is automatically having some 80,000 thoughts, on average 80% negative. Like your lungs automatically breath automaticity keeps you alive and drives all your functioning in the form of habits too. This is the gift and curse of automaticity because as is said in neuroscience your brain seeks to learn things fast and make them automatic as quickly as possible. So once you are automatically doing something like a habit or procrastinating or getting angry or resisting actions this automaticity is difficult to change. It’s a reason why even top psychologists and change workers find it near-impossible to help people change. It’s also why even the most popular books on habit change are focused on most basic habits like waking up earlier or eating differently or exercising, for instance. Because changing your automaticity can be near-impossible to do. ## To change or not? Why do some 80% of New Year’s resolutions fail by February 15? For the same reason nearly all habit change fails and people can remain depressed or anxious or fearful or stuck their entire life. This is how difficult it can be to change yourself and other people. So much so we all generally agree you can never change people and must love for who they are because few people can even change oneself! This isn’t just because it’s difficult to change your automatic functioning. It’s difficult because nobody teaches you anything about this! So habits and how people are being are seen as fixed like personalities. Even psychologists who talk about having a growth mindset fail to get this is automatic too… you either have it automatically or you don’t, good luck “installing” this in someone else or even in you! Am I making sense to you here? Is this your experience in changing yourself and others too? ## You? How much are you focused on changing yourself or others or even going all the way transforming? What have you noticed from this? Have you found it easy to change old behaviors and install new ones? What are some examples of habits and other automatic behaviors you have changed in you? Or others, including your kids? What did it take for you to change this? Would you say it was easy or did it take some real doing? And what about where you’re at right now, are there things you are looking to change? Are there things you’re finding difficult to change? Or even commit to changing? If you could, what would you change? Now ask yourself a mind fc question: Who is the you wanting to change vs. the you wanting to stay the same? This is the illusion of being conscious. ## Being conscious Of course you know you are conscious, just you’re never taught what this even means! This is such a tricky topic for us humans even our smartest scientists can be fooled thinking some AI bot is conscious as they’ve never examined their own consciousness! Because your brain “I-dentifies,” meaning it runs around all day saying “I think” this or “I feel” that you’re led to take ownership of those automatic feelings and thoughts as though you would say “I’m pumping my blood, I’m digesting my food into energy, I’m growing my hair.” Of course you never say things like this, do you? Do you see my point here? Although it’s natural to take ownership of how you think and feel this is happening automatically in you. If you doubt this, write down a thought you will have in exactly 60 seconds, then set a timer and prove to yourself your brain is going to wander all over the place for 60 seconds and you have zero clue what thought that brain will choose! Feelings too. Take a guess exactly how you will feel in 2 hours. Or how you’ll feel next Friday? Can you even guess what feeling you’ll be experiencing in 3, 2, 1? Or why on Earth you are feeling exactly as you do now? Or how you felt when you woke up? The illusion of being conscious is you are choosing these things. ## Really!? All the time in psychology people say you choose your thoughts. OK, so if you choose your thoughts why would anyone choose to be unhappy? Why wouldn’t we all just choose to feel incredible? Or why would anyone choose the feeling to procrastinate? Or lack confidence? Or think in fear-filled ways? If you are choosing your thoughts why wouldn’t we all “just” choose your best ways of thinking, feeling, taking action? Because of automaticity. Yes, it’s true you can choose your thoughts, feelings, actions, just you must first see these are automatically being chosen for “you.” Again, who is this you choosing these thoughts vs. the you choosing them automatically? This demands if you’re committed to choosing your best ways of thinking, feeling, taking action you must learn how to interact with that body and brain you experience choosing automatically. It’s why the craft of human transformation seems such a mystery. And why it took me decades to solve the mystery so you can learn much faster how you choose. ## You choose You can train to choose exactly how you are being. When you feel lacking for instance you can change it easily without having to rely on say having an experience or getting a thing or downing alcohol or a drug or seeing a person or some other “Secondary Object” to create a “Primary Experience” in you. You choose when you know exactly how. Every single thought. Every single feeling. Every single action. This is the secret key to operating manual because you know your brain is automatically choosing, which is [The Simulation](https://geoffblades.com/1-1-the-simulation-is-in-you/). By learning to “Interrupt and Transform” the automaticity of your body and brain you are choosing to operate manually, choosing your thoughts, feelings, actions your brain then rapidly automates. This is why the underlying method to our school Rapid Sustained Transformation, RST, is “UpTraining” operating manual. ## Why operating manual Nobody ever hands you an operating manual for being human and nobody I’ve seen even talks about operating manual. Instead just like over time we’ve gotten rid of manual automobiles and drive automatics and now cars so automatic they drive you, all us humans are operating automatically, few of us observing it too! It’s likely because the issue with operating manual is it’s unnatural to do. It’s very “not easy” as you are up against the powerful gift and curse of automaticity and even if you know what to do as I have for many years it’s taken me years of training to still be just OK at doing! But for those of us focused on evolving in this lifetime and doing your best to live full whole complete in your best thoughts, best feelings, best actions as many moments as you can, this is the most important training you can do. This is why it’s my most important work and why operating manual.