Are you living on autopilot?
And does that phrase immediately irritate you as an overused Instagram-esque meme?
But…here’s the thing:
Are you?
Does is feel like life is so full and busy that you are going through the motions of living without really being present to what you are doing? Perhaps you notice your memory for details is less sharp, or that you are doing things without thinking about them. Or you over commit yourself without thinking through the cost in terms of time and energy.
Last time I was musing about learning to be HERE rather than always focused on getting THERE (wherever there is).
When was the last time you stopped and checked in with yourself –
How am I feeling? What is happening in my body? What do I need? Is the life I am living working for me just now?
This is not about becoming a self-absorbed narcissist. But it is about being intentional and about the life we are living, in a way that allows us to have more agency and resources to live well for what matters to us most.
Whatever cause you are committed to or wherever you find purpose in your life, you will bring more to that if you are not living on autopilot.
Age old wisdom
Some 2000 years ago, Socrates said something along the lines of this:
The secret to living a life worthy of the name is to live the examined life – to take the time to look inside, to connect with self, and grapple with the big questions. Am I living the right life for me or am I on autopilot?
Take time to look inside.
Living on autopilot often precludes any kind of self examination. But we cannot know where we are going if we do not know where we are starting from.
The concept of self-examination can sound very grand and imposing. And that might come with a sense that it must take A Lot of Time to do properly and to gain a useful outcome.
But this is simply about asking ourselves questions and taking the time to stop and notice what surfaces. We are so used to filling every waking moment with some kind of activitiy, be it checking messages on our phones when in a queue, listening to podcasts or music when out walking, catching up with emails when waiting for the kettle to boil.
These are not bad things of themselves. But this is so much NOISE – noise in our heads, all the mental tabs that are open and the never-ending-being-on-ness that can be exhausting. And that noise can be a deliberate or subconscious distraction.
Grapple with the big questions.
What if we take a few minutes when out for a walk, or waiting for our morning coffee to filter, or standing in a queue to pause and look inside?
To ask ourselves:
What is the one most important thing today?
What am I most grateful for today?
What is my body telling me I need?
What am I enjoying right now, in this minute: that I can see, smell, touch, taste?
Where do I want to make a difference in one small way today?
In some ways, these are the kinds of big questions that Socrates encourages us to grapple with. But in many ways, this is a simple way to live a more examined life and step away from living on autopilot.
Think of a skill you have. Did you learn that overnight? No, thought not.
And of course you did not; things worth learning generally take time. So too with self-examination. It is a muscle that requires training.
Notice the next time you get to the end of a task or a day and have no real awareness of how you got there. Challenge yourself to stop in the midst of something and notice, really notice what you see, feel and are doing. Herein is the first step to living the examined life, a life worthy of the name, rather than living on autopilot.
Because once you notice what you ARE doing, you can then make different choices.