Are you on Auto-pilot?
Posted on July 19, 2023 by Geraint Thomas, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.
Is auto-pilot running your life? How often do you find yourself wondering "How did I get here?" or even "Why?"
I read an article recently about being on Auto-pilot and it got me thinking about how much of our lives we live on autopilot – not really thinking about what we’re doing, where we’re going or even why!
How many of you ask yourself – “wow what have I done all day, where did the time go” or better still “why did I react that way?” – I know I have been guilty of that!
Here are three things that you can do to stop reacting because you are not really thinking:
1. Take a quality pause, a brief 2-3 second break where you say to yourself – I do have a choice. I can react the way I normally would have to this stimulus or I can react differently. With the quality pause you can get out of auto-pilot and into the present.
2. Develop the habit of counting to 5, slowly, before you speak or act as a result of a stimulus.
3. Give someone you are close to the permission to alert you (make you aware) each and every time you react without pausing or taking the time to think through your response.
I have definitely tried all three of these and although its slow progress – I can report back – it’s working! I am definitely not on auto-pilot anymore!
#choices #knowyourself
