Autopilots check your seat belts, buckle yourself in its time to fly. Do you live life fast, do you finish other peoples sentences? Do hours blur into days into weeks. Is your life on auto pilot?
Its easy to switch into auto, when a great deal of activities and experiences throughout a day also occurred the day before and the day before that. Its like your very own ground hog day over and over and over again, day after day, week after week and then there is a blip. Some people call it the weekend. Others call it an inconvenience. Who can help it? Wake up, have the same shower, eat the same breakfast, watch the same breakfast show, drive the same route to work, check your emails, answer the phone, retire.
Im not serious right, do people really live like this? They definitely do. If you are on auto most of the day then you are probably not stopping to smell the roses, in fact you probably wish the roses weren’t there because at some point they are going to need to be trimmed and that will disrupt your work routine. You probably started off excited about work, motivated to perform, to do what it takes to reach your goals. This motivation turned from a passion into an obsession ultimately to become a burden. Does this sound like you? Are you one more setback away from burn out?
When the everyday becomes mundane; when you feel tired continuously even with a normal routine, when you cant relax, cant let go, you are stressed out, its time for a break in the weather. What you need is a way out.
Cue your brain and scary voice “there is no way out, there are bills to pay, my job needs me, my organisation needs me, my boss needs me, I am doing this for my family, who else will pay the bills, got to feed the kids, got to get just one more project finished” etc etc etc and on and on…
Listen to this voice and acknowledge it exists, of course these are real concerns, they deserve acknowledgement. Thank your brain for being so considerate of your needs. Now choose to pay real attention to thoughts that are actually helpful. Ok so if you are on auto pilot then paying attention isn’t one of your top skills at the moment. But work with me here.
The world will not wait for you to complete your obsession. Actually the world will start to show you reasons for why your obsession is no good for you. You feel crap, your spouse becomes angry, you don’t take holidays, you get sick easy and generally you don’t enjoy life. All in all, auto sucks!
Return to who you were before the passion became an obsession. Put yourself in experiences that have nothing to do with your routines. Feel again, one sensory experience at a time. Take back every inch of your life one moment at a time. You may not wake up tomorrow as the life of the party, you may not marvel in the stars or gaze lazily for hours at the beauty of life but you may smile more often.
Now forget about your long term goals, forget about your obsessive drive whatever it may be. Live for the day and only this day. This is your day right now. It is going to be unique to you. You can choose right now how you are going to experience it. It is within your power to choose how you will react to every experience life will deliver to you on this day.
Right now do something different, from the moment you get up to the moment you go to bed. Get up on the other side, have a cold shower, eat something different, drive a new way to work. Don’t check your email till later, take the time to wish everyone you meet a great day. Try it out, check it out, slow it down, time is in abundance, time is at your disposal. You are in control, its time to grab the wheel, take the stick, reach over, gently, gently, now turn off auto.
