Does every day feel like a great adventure to you? Do you feel like you’re living your dreams, and are constantly putting your best foot forward in life?
Although this is something that pretty much everyone aspires to when push comes to shove, the unfortunate reality is that many — perhaps most — of us are more likely to find ourselves feeling bored, jaded, and underwhelmed on a day-to-day basis.
One of the reasons for this seems to be the basic fact that, as human beings, we all tend to fall into familiar routines and patterns of behavior in life. This makes sense since it would be pretty exhausting to have to make conscious and thoughtful decisions about what to do and how to perceive things, in every single moment of our lives.
Being on “autopilot” in this way might be a good thing if you’re living in an exciting and uplifting way. But if you’re caught in an underwhelming routine that doesn’t draw out the best in you, then autopilot can keep you stuck in an unpleasant and unproductive loop and can stop you from realizing your potential.
Here are a few suggestions and tips on how to break out of autopilot in your life, so that you can change direction and begin living in a more exciting and dynamic way.
Work on the core pillars of intention, belief, and focus
The core pillars of “intention,” “belief” and “focus” are essential for living an empowered and energetic life — but what do these terms really mean?
Intention essentially means having a clear goal and a sense of direction. Instead of just wandering around aimlessly and dabbling in a bit of this and a bit of that, you know where you want to go and what you should focus on.
Focus refers to the ability to concentrate your energies and your attention, and to dedicate yourself to doing your best in a particular area. Even if you’ve got some great and highly motivating goal that you’re after, you’re not likely to make any headway in pursuing it, if you aren’t able to focus on it powerfully.
Belief is the essential component that binds these other two elements together, and that helps you to live a big and bold life, instead of one where you just go through the motions day by day and feel underwhelmed.
Essentially, you need to believe that you are capable of achieving your goals and intentions. You need to believe that it’s worthwhile for you to actually attempt to do your best, and to live in a focused manner.
There are various things you can do to develop your sense of belief, including challenging and questioning your negative beliefs and your perceived limitations, using a number of different psychological techniques.
One way or the other, though, you’ll need to work on the core pillars of intentionality, belief, and focus in order to change the path you’re on and live a more exciting and dynamic life.
Set yourself intentional goals in life, instead of just going with the default goals that society and routine offer you
Most people can probably think of a stereotypical example of someone who becomes too obsessed with a particular goal and ends up completely failing to live in the present moment, or to nurture their connections with their family and friends.
Unfortunately, the fact that some people let their goals up-end their lives has caused a lot of other people to more or less abandon the idea of goal setting altogether and to “go with the flow.”
The problem is, “going with the flow” mostly just means that you’ll be directed in life by other people’s goals, and by your own most basic and generally uninspiring goals — like paying the bills every month. This is a big part of how people end up going from day to day on “autopilot,” and miss out on a sense of excitement and adventure.
By setting yourself intentional goals in life — things that genuinely inspire and motivate you — you’ll be taking steps to proactively shape the course of your destiny and to live a life that’s more exciting and more intentional.
Whether your goals include getting a green card and making an international move, or starting and running a successful business, or traveling the world, goals are likely to be necessary to avoid living on autopilot.
Check-in with yourself daily to assess whether you’ve been living up to the new standards you’ve set for yourself
Making the decision to stop living on autopilot means making a decision to hold yourself to a certain standard — likely a new standard, that’s different to the one you had before.
To ensure that you’re heading in the direction you want instead of just aimlessly “going with the flow” or lapsing back into old familiar patterns of behaviour, you need to develop a habit of checking in with yourself daily, to assess how well you’re doing.
Before going to bed each night, take some time to remember the day in detail, and how you acted at different key moments.
Did you live up to your new standards? Where could you have done something better? Where are you proud of the way you behaved?
Regularly engage in activities that bring your energy and sense of enthusiasm and adventure up
Getting too caught up in a repetitive daily routine naturally tends to cause feelings of boredom and sluggishness over time — and even people who are living great and exciting lives can benefit from consciously looking to add a bit of variety here and there.
Regularly engaging in activities that bring your energy levels and sense of enthusiasm and adventure up, can be great for a variety of different reasons.
These kinds of activities can help you to feel your best, for one thing. But they can also give you the boost that you might be in real need of, to get out of a rut you might be stuck in, and to stop feeling apathetic and jaded.