“The inertia of the mind urges it to slide down the easy slope of imagination, rather than to climb the steep slope of introspection.” ― Marcel Proust
Adults make an average of 35,000 decisions a day. We’ve developed an unconscious decision-making system to manage routines. It prevents us from overloading our brains. However, modern life has hijacked our lives — the mechanism that should protect us is creating social disengagement.
Our minds wander around most of the time. 96% of people admit making most decisions on autopilot, according to research . Living on inertia has become an epidemic. We let go off control subconsiously, instead of keeping control.
Autopilot is becoming our default operating mode — we are sleep-walking into our choices.
39% of respondents say they slip into autopilot while relaxing at home. And two-fifths say they’ve forgotten something while operating in that mode. We are living on autopilot in the place where we need to pay the most attention: our home. Most of us make decisions — such as what to eat, what to watch on TV, or what to wear — without putting any thinking, the study concludes.
There’s another way to ride -> Why we must stop living on autopilot and take control.
Living on autopilot disengages us from both our present and future. One exercise I love facilitating to help people reconnect with their life’s purpose is the “future-self meditation.”
Participants ‘travel’ to the future to visit themselves 1, 3, 5, and 10 years from now. The goal is to help them visualize their dreams and wishes. Each visit, at a different point in time, helps people visualize the progression but, most importantly, to understand how they overcame their fears and constraints.
To my surprise, most people find it hard to project their future — they are so disconnected from the present that they can’t dream. Living on autopilot means leaning towards the most comfortable thinking mode. But we have two; we must learn to use both.
Though System 1 and System 2 have been around for quite some time, it was Nobel awardee Professor Daniel Kahneman’s book Thinking, Fast and Slow, that turned them mainstream.
System 1 is an automatic, fast, and unconscious way of thinking — it’s our autopilot. This system is autonomous and efficient, though deceiving too. It’s more prone to bias and to make the same mistakes.
System 2 is slow, conscious, and effortful — it requires attention and energy. It’s more reliable and can filter the System 1’s misjudgments.
Lazy Brain
Our brain is lazy — that’s why it leans towards System 1. Self-awareness helps us train our minds and avoid living on autopilot. It’s not that one is better than the other — we must learn to use those in a balanced way.
System 1 is ideal for quick decisions, based on little information. When you are driving your car or doing the laundry, you don’t need to overthink. However, you wouldn’t use it to make more significant life choices like choosing a career, which home to buy or whom to marry.
System 2 is ideal for handling more complex mental activities, such as logical reasoning, managing interpersonal relationships, learning new things or building habits. It can help you turn off the autopilot.
Take control of Your Life.
Book a coaching session to discover how to start dreaming again and take your life of auto pilot.
