Your Operative Mind
For most, the Operative Mind is the part of your mind that feels most like “you.” Technically that’s an incorrect perception, as all parts of your mind are you. But it is easy to understand why we tend to identify more closely with the Operative Mind, as the Operative Mind is the area that is the most “visible” and over which you have the most direct control. As its name implies, the Operative Mind is where you operate your self. It is the control center where you sit and “think” about things (again, a forgivable misnomer), where you make your decisions, where you receive signals from your senses about the outside world, and where you make your choices to send signals back to your body about movement (although, interestingly, not where you decide exactly which muscles to move, most of the time). It is where emotions are registered (though not originated) and where you receive results your Cognizant Mind, which you might recognize as “gut feelings” or “intuition”. It is where your inner monologue lives if you have one. It is, in essence, the final arbiter and judge and the President of your mind. Nothing comes in from the outside world, or leaves the front door back into the world, except with the express sign-off from your Operative Mind (This can sound incorrect, because some Operative Minds are not trained or organized very well, and as such will sign off on things without paying any attention to what they mean or if they are a good idea. But technically, sign-off is still required from a mechanical level, even if it is sometimes pro forma). In short, the Operative mind is the captain of the ship “S.S. You,” and it performs its duties with the help and consideration of the other parts that make up your mind.
And also because this is the area of your mind that you are most familiar with. Some of these features that differentiate the Operative Mind from the Cognizant Mind:
- It has limited capacity. It can only store so many things at once. “Remembering” one thing may very well cause you to forget another.
- It specializes in filtering out data and focusing on other data. Very good at prioritization
- It is much more comfortable making decisions on incomplete data or under a time crunch
- It “shows its work.” You can watch not only the conclusion that it reached, but you can watch the process by which it gets there.
- It is capable of imagination and abstraction, and can use these tools to break down and reason about complex topics.
- It is single-threaded. That is, it can only think of one thing at a time. Even people who are good at multitasking are actually task-switching very quickly.
- It can lie to itself and to the Cognizant Mind
- It can be confidently wrong.
- It can intentionally speed up or slow down depending on need and urgency.
Most important of all, though: it has the final say on what you decided to do.
Your Cognizant Mind will often tell you what it thinks you should do, but only your Operative Mind can officially sign off on it and make it the official decision. Some people you know have probably gotten in the habit of signing off on anything their Cog Mind suggests - especially those who like to live by their feelings - artists, dancers, musicians. This is a perfectly valid way to live your life. Under the covers, however, the Op Mind is still signing off. It’s just agreeing to the Terms and Conditions without reading them. But never mistake that for meaning you have no control. If you’re the type of person who’s going to hand everything over to the Cog mind, you are still responsible for the outcome, and it becomes critically important to make sure that your Cog Mind is clean of lies.