The Code’s five laws describe something certain academics call self-regulation, a tech-term for anything that regulates itself, anything that intelligently pursues a goal in changing conditions. A guided missile regulates itself. It intelligently pursues a goal. It goes after a target, adjusts behavior in changing conditions, and reaches that target effectively.
This is how we work as well. Thought and behavior move us toward goals, every moment of existence. “People are goal-directed creatures,” writes self-regulation experts Charles Carver and Michael Sheier. “People take up goals, intentions, values, wishes, and try to make these qualities manifest in the experiences of their lives.”
We continually adjust and pursue conscious and unconscious goals using an internal guidance system. We are always self-regulating.
Self-regulation isn’t just self-control. It’s bigger, broader. When we think of self-control, we think about overcoming a desire. Say we want to eat cake. But we choose not to. That’s self-control. It’s part of self-regulation, but only a small part. Self-regulation is persistence toward a goal in changing conditions. It’s everything involved in the pursuit of a purpose.
As I explain in my upcoming book, The Code, all thought and behavior is self-regulating. Everything we think, say, and do. And when we discover how self-regulation works, we immediately start to self-regulate better. We better diagnose and fix our problems. We accelerate our progress. We become highly effective.
This is why The Code is so important. It is the secret of self-regulation, and by extension, the secret of human nature. It’s the key to effective thought and behavior. The five laws teach us why we think and do the way we do, why things break down, and how to fix things. They unlock new power to solve problems and get things done.
