Time To Turn Off Auto Pilot
Ladies And Gentlemen We Have Reached Our Cruising Altitude, You Can Now Distract Yourself For The Rest Of Your Life.
It’s so easy to live life on cruise control, not really driving but not really giving up the act of driving itself. The thing is, we want to be in the driver seat, we want to feel in control of where we are going and all the aspects of our trip, but are we actually grabbing the wheel and managing the controls? I think our brains have naturally and biologically set us up to make everything we do as automatic and easy as possible.
This human trait has a lot of value when it comes to the very rudimentary aspects of our life, and it can also be a tool for others (as I’ll explain later). As an example, I don’t want to have to think about every single brush stroke when I’m brushing my teeth. It’s nice that I’ve created that habit and can just do it without thinking about it.
Don’t Habit Your Intention.
When it comes to the more important aspects of our lives, like our relationships and our jobs and our family, we don’t want those interactions to become habitual and lose our intention in being automatic and thoughtless. The reason for this is that if we want to have an impact on our lives and an impact on the people around us we have to invest intentional energy towards those things. These habits can sneak up on us, and could be as simple as getting home every day kissing your wife and kids hello, throwing your meal kit that came in the mail in the microwave, plopping on the couch to turn on that Netflix show you’re watching, maybe check your phone a few times and next thing you know it’s time to get ready for bed.
These routines, these habits, are capable of being valuable for us if they’re built out in a way that helps us achieve the goals which we want to achieve. We just have to be intentional with the habit and the automation. Using habits to “set up” our intentions, not take over our lives and leave us on autopilot.
Our Habits Will Ruin Us If Unattended.
If you’re not actively monitoring the habits that you’re forming, and then reflecting on them and assessing whether or not they actually help you achieve whatever your goals are with every aspect of your life, your habits could actually be ruining your life. This isn’t to suggest that using habits in our lives is bad, on the contrary we should absolutely leverage our biological tendency to automate our lives. We just need to make sure that whatever we’re automating is intentional and it was an actual act of life efficiency towards an ultimate goal. If we just let our lives become a habit, we may end up so automated that we never reach our goals we just stay in a comfortable state of habitual boredom.
Results Come From The Done.
You have to actually DO something to get something done. As an example, it was really important for me to start writing and creating content for this blog. I knew that the only way I would be successful in ensuring that I was doing this consistently was if I formed a habit out of this process. “My Question: How do I automate my blog?” This was me realizing and recognizing that habits can be my best asset and my best ally in accomplishing a personal goal.
So here’s how I set it up, and how it works today: When I set out to start this habit and get myself in the process of creating this content I realized I needed to set myself up for that success. So, I asked myself what were the things that I would need to make this happen.
Steps To Build My Blog Habit.
Here’s what I knew I needed:
- I needed enough time to sit down and create content, but also in a restricted timeframe so that I wouldn’t just waste the time I dedicated to it (if I gave myself two hours for a thirty minutes task, I’d waste an hour and a half of precious time). Essentially I created a space and set a specific amount of time for me to do this so as to eliminate resistance and create that urgency to get it done.
- I needed accountability to actually do it and to stay with the habit through the habit formation process.
- I also new I needed to have content and triggers or ideas to drive what I was going to write about or talk about in a video/recording.
- I needed to execute without reservation. Don’t create a situation where I can think about it, I just need to do it.
Now, every day I get to my office I go through the various aspects of my habit.
Create a Ritual:
When I arrive at my office I unlock the door and put my belongings down but I leave the lights off and go over to my “content creation area” that I set up in my office.
Set the Stage:
I went online and bought a $40 writing desk that I stacked up against the wall. Minimizing distraction and giving me a place where I’m dedicated to doing this task. (The idea actually came from a Teddy Roosevelt biography I was reading, because I was inspired by how capable he was of doing SO MUCH in his life and how he was an avid writer and reader, the biography states that in his study he had a desk that was up against the wall so that he wouldn’t be distracted by anything, helping him focus on what it was he was doing in that moment.)
Force the Focus:
There’s a lamp that I have on this writing desk that I turn on, and it’s the only light that is on and it’s focusing solely on this desk and my laptop. This is essentially a reminder to me that the only thing I should be doing in this time is creating this content, and physiologically puts my focus on the desk/table/laptop. I’m literally forcing tunnel vision.
Accountability:
I also bought a timer cube, and I set the timer cube at 30 minutes. I chose 30 minutes because that’s enough time for me to write read and edit a blog post. Also, within this time frame, I have to use whatever resources I have to come up with the content, editing, and cover image for the blog post. Going back to the theme of “just doing it and executing”, I decided to find whatever images I feel are relevant on a free stock image website. This is probably why my images are kind of random and not curated. (Don’t think just do.)
Inspiration:
I have a written version of this and a digital version on my Notes app in my phone, but what I do is, when I’m reading a book or magazine or newspaper, if I get an idea that seems like it would be an interesting topic to write about, I jot it down in my notebook. (ie. How to use habits for success.) I don’t stress too much on the length for the depth of some of these posts, my goal is just to get content out consistently and to come up with ideas that will spark that creativity. The col thing is, as I’ve started to do this I’ve realized the more I write the more ideas I want to write about. I also feel that the more I write the better [I feel] my writing gets. (You can be the judge of that.)
Consistency and Ease:
The key here is, I don’t force myself to post something every single day, but I do force the habit if I go to my office. So it’s really about setting up a habit with consistency, if I tried to find space and time at home, I wouldn’t be successful. So I force this habit on myself in a setting I know I can do it easily. If I haven’t written a blog post on a given day, it’s probably because I didn’t go to my office.
My main focus and intention with this habit isn’t to have daily content creation, as much as I would like that to be the case, my intention is more about forming this habit that when I’m in the environment where I can create content, I have to. It’s the consistency in the habit, and creating ease of execution so I can’t reinforce it each time without resistance.
So once I get in my office, with the lights off but for my writing desk, set my 30 minute timer, look into my idea journal, I’m forcing my habit of creating content first thing every day I arrive. As you’re reading this, now you know that today I spent 30 minutes at my writing desk with lights off to get this out!
Time To Land This Plane.
So now the pilot comes over the loudspeaker and announces that we’re arriving to our destination and we’re going to be starting our descent. At this point you put away your laptop that you were watching movies on, or you’re finishing that drink you’ve been sipping on, and even though you’re not getting off the plane, you sit there alert for another 25 minutes because there is still a lot of time left on this flight. The weird thing is, now you’re actively engaged in the experience of being a passenger on this flight (you’ve been on autopilot with the plane the rest of the time). Now with your cruise control off, you’re paying attention, maybe you’re looking out the window or looking around at the other passengers you ignored for the last 3 hours and your attention and intention is on the moment.
Even though being distracted helped the flight go by faster, we shouldn’t want to be distracted from our own lives. This is why we need to be in this AWARENESS state with our habits, we need to turn off cruise control, turn off auto pilot, be alert and mindful of what it is that we’re doing in the moment and on a daily basis. By reflecting on our lives and how we may have automated certain areas that we need to take back control of, we can work to build habits that will help us get to our final destination. Cruise control is a tool we can use to assist us, but we must be careful because if we do not pay attention we can end up flying our entire life on auto pilot and never getting anywhere.
