Autopilot: an unfulfilling ride

Get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, go to work. Come home, cook dinner, do chores, go to bed. It’s easy to get stuck on autopilot in this life.

If you’re caught in the sticky trap of drinking, your life is likely a recurring nightmare of numbing, regret, broken promises and feeling like crap (physically, mentally and spiritually).

But even if you’ve found sobriety, your life can too easily slip into autopilot and consist of to-do lists and comfort zones. You feel good. Your relationships are better. You are more productive. But is this enough?

Here’s the thing: most of us don’t like to push ourselves. Autopilot requires less energy, less risk. We prefer to stick with what we know. Why try something different when what we are doing is working just fine?

We all have to attend to certain “have-to”s in this life in order to maintain the lifestyle of our choosing. But what do we do with the rest? That discretionary time that could make all the difference.

Do we think, write, pray, reflect, research and pursue our “what-ifs” and our “somedays”, or do we sleep, watch TV, scroll on our phones and otherwise ignore that small voice inside that says we were meant for more?

If we don’t switch off our autopilot, we deny ourselves the chance to engage in the kind of thinking that leads to action and fulfillment.

I know that “these days” are different. That this virus seems to have taken us all hostage. That it is more difficult to coast on autopilot because there is so much unpredictability in our daily endeavors.

I picture ants marching in orderly rows and some invisible disruption suddenly causes them all to scramble and wander in random chaos.

But we human, and ants as well, adapt and adjust with time and when tested. People are already talking about the new normal that involves permanently wearing masks and staying six feet apart.

So I imagine that even in a world where the unpredictable is predictable, we will return to our lines and flip the switch to autopilot.

However, I am challenging myself to not flip the switch. Because I’ve realized meaning must be pursued. That it only reveals itself in glimpses and precious moments. And we must engage in thinking and contemplation to find the hidden treasures buried in the fringes of the unexpected and extraordinary.

In the daily devotional New Morning Mercies by Paul David Tripp, he poses a series of questions that I feel are worthy of serious contemplation. Practical questions that can help define our own unique path. Questions that can help us find our way instead of mindlessly marching behind the ant in front of us.

Questions to Consider:

1. What set of values determines your schedule?
2. What view of life determines how you make decisions?
3. What perspective about the nature of and purpose for your existence forms your everyday street-level priorities?
4. How does your thinking shape what you do and say every day?

Answering these questions can provide us with insight to the the way we are living now (much of it unconscious), and give us a road map to where we want to go. What we want our journey to look like, and if we perhaps need a change in scenery.

Our time is flying by whether we are seizing opportunities or coasting on autopilot. Pushing ourselves or burying our heads in the sand. Our time is flying by whether we hide in the safety of our homes or venture out to engage with the sanitized and socially distanced.

I won’t call this time normal, but I also won’t wait for it to be “over” to chase the meaningful and continue to search for what I am made for. Because we were all made for more, but very few of us find it.

Will you look with me?