Autopilot Archives - Page 2 of 2

You Can’t Get Off the Hamster Wheel

July 8, 2014 by Joycelyn Campbell 2 Comments

Your brain has a mind of its own.

It operates largely outside your awareness and without your consent.

It has developed an agenda for you that determines how you react, the way you think and feel, and what you do.

Your brain’s agenda may have little in common with what you’re trying to create for yourself, but like it or not, its agenda is your agenda.

In order to retrain your brain to get it on board with YOUR agenda, you need to:

1. Find out how your brain actually works.

2. Identify what you really want in your life.

3. Learn how to use your brain to create MORE of what you want and LESS of what you don’t want.

The State of a Mind

March 27, 2014 by Joycelyn Campbell 1 Comment

Mind Games no.171 — (Photo credit: dek dav)

State of mind—the state of our cognitive processes—is a kind of framework within which we operate any time we’re awake. Some basic states of mind are:

Distracted
Mindful
Focused
Autopilot
Flow
Wandering/Daydreaming
Meditative
Ruminative
Reflective
Anxious

There are more states that could be added to this list, but these 10 cover a pretty wide swath of the territory. Obviously our minds are important to us. Where would we be without them? They are running at one speed or another, in one direction or another, all day long. And yet I doubt we pay much attention to the state our mind is in from one moment to the next.

When I started writing this post, I was somewhat distracted, but now I’m more focused. Focused seems like a more appropriate state of mind for composing a post on states of mind—or on anything, really. Anxious or meditative wouldn’t help get the post written, nor would daydreaming or being on autopilot. Some reflection would be helpful; in fact, I’m going to slip into a reflective state of mind in a minute. Rumination, on the other hand, would just slow the whole process down.

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During my reflection, I realized that I engage in a lot of activities that require my mind to be focused. I find many of these activities enjoyable, but whether or not I enjoy being focused, focus and concentration use more energy than some other states of mind do. Being on autopilot is much easier, as is daydreaming and being in flow. It’s no accident that autopilot is the default state of mind; it consumes a pretty insignificant amount of energy.

Mindful and meditative states of mind, while unarguably and demonstrably beneficial, can’t be maintained indefinitely, which means they fall toward the high energy-using end of the spectrum.

Our states of mind come and go, ebb and flow, throughout any given day. Occasionally they do so by our bidding, but more often they shift on their own. We are not in charge of our brain, says Michael Gazzaniga, and this is simply more evidence of that.

If we were to pay attention to our state of mind to try to identify what it is, we might discover whether or not it’s a good match for what we’re trying to do in the moment. If it isn’t, maybe we could do that thing later, when our state of mind is a better match. Or maybe we could take a few minutes and change not our mind, but our state of mind. Simply recognizing that we are always operating within one state of mind or another—as is everyone else—might help to eliminate some of our inner and interpersonal conflict.

Perseverance Is Magic

July 21, 2013 by Joycelyn Campbell 5 Comments

Perseverance Trail Head (Photo credit: AlaskanLibrarian)

After creating an intention and choosing a tool or technique to help focus our attention on it, we will surely achieve quick and easy success.

Are you laughing? That was supposed to be a joke. Remember, doing something intentionally and deliberately—and staying focused on it—requires conscious attention. If we’ve already got a habit in place that we’re trying to change, we have to convince our brain to go along with the plan, and that isn’t going to happen overnight.

The problem is that we’d prefer instant gratification, while our brain requires persistent effort on our part to convince it that we really do want X instead of Y. When at first we don’t succeed, we might decide it’s not worth the effort. Why bother? Just go with the flow. Or we might chalk it up to being weak or lacking discipline or having no will power. So we give up—to prove the point, apparently.

Perseverance isn’t the same as dogged persistence. Sometimes there’s a good reason to stop attempting to do something. One of the reasons for paying attention is that we might recognize that it isn’t precisely A we want; it’s more along the lines of B. Or we might realize we’ve bitten off too big a chunk and need to pare down our intention. Perseverance just means we keep moving toward the desired outcome. It’s incredibly simple. We don’t need to chastise ourselves. We don’t need to make up excuses. We just pick up where we left off and keep going. It isn’t a competition or a race. It doesn’t matter when we get where we’re going, just that we get there.

Continuous effort—not strength or intelligence—is the key to unlocking our potential. ― Winston Churchill

It helps to have a cheerleader—a person or a group of people—who can encourage us. We don’t need someone to call us out on our failure to achieve instant results. We need someone who recognizes that what we’re trying to do isn’t easy, not because we’re incapable or lazy, but because we’re human and our brain is very set in its ways.

Perseverance gets a bad rap in some quarters. It isn’t flashy or catchy or stylish. It’s often linked with discipline and endurance and sounds like something that’s good for you or that builds character. But perseverance is the key to accessing the brain’s autopilot. It really is magic.

Intention Is Powerful

July 17, 2013 by Joycelyn Campbell 8 Comments

Autopilot Off (EP) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We humans have a propensity for following the path of least resistance. We tend to do the easier thing, the thing that takes the least time or requires the least effort. Often the result is that we do what we’ve always done because that’s what’s familiar. We know how to do it so we don’t have to put much thought or effort into it. In fact, we can—and do—do what we’ve always done on autopilot. Because it’s so easy, operating on autopilot is very appealing, even compelling.

But autopilot only works when we’re in familiar territory. Novel situations require conscious thought, and conscious thought requires more energy than autopilot requires. We’re sort of programmed to conserve energy by continuing along the path of least resistance. That’s why habits are so difficult to change or break. The way our brains conserve energy is by developing subroutines whenever they can and turning them over to the unconscious. This enables us to get by without having to think about a great many things we do. Yes, my brain made me do it is a valid excuse.

Our brain’s autopilot keeps us alive every day, but it can be difficult to interrupt. Autopilot behavior could be called habitual, unconscious, automatic, unmindful, or routine. What it can’t be called is deliberate.

If we want to do something deliberately, as opposed to habitually, the first thing we need is an intention. If we don’t have an intention in place, we’re likely to succumb to the siren song of the path of least resistance. That’s just the way we’re wired.

An intention is more than wishful thinking or a good idea. An intention is something specific we are committed to doing and willing to put the necessary time and effort into. Creating and acting on an intention requires our conscious thought. If we want to break away from the path of least resistance and carve out a new path, we need to ask ourselves if we’re committed to doing it and if we’re willing to do whatever it takes, including feeling uncomfortable.

We also need to get very, very specific. It’s fine to begin with a vague or general objective. That’s the way most ideas start out. But if we want to give ourselves a fighting chance at succeeding, we need to spell out the what, when, where, and how of what we intend to do.

Acting deliberately and thoughtfully is the opposite of running on autopilot. It takes practice. It requires energy and effort. But first of all, it requires an intention.

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