Hypnotized on the Highway

I want you to imagine yourself driving home from work - okay, during pre-COVID times when we actually drove to work! This is a route you know like the back of your hand.

As you drive, you suddenly realize where you are and discover you don't quite remember how you got there. In fact, you have no recollection of a chunk of the driving you just did the last several minutes. You don't remember seeing the usual sights along the route you're very familiar with.

That's happened to you before, right?

Each time this has happened to me, my first thought was, "Oh my! Was I distracted? I wasn't paying attention. What if I had crashed into something?!"

Or ended up in a different destination.

Do you have the same reaction? Well, fear not!

Studies have shown that it's neither distraction nor fatigue. It's not even dangerous (in most cases, they say). They also have a name for it - Highway Hypnosis.

All your faculties were actually engaged in the driving at that time - you take the right exits, make the correct turns. It's just that you don't remember any of it.

It's all automated. Your brain remembers what to do because you've taken that route so many times. You were on autopilot.

Our brains have developed a system of making decisions so we can take care of routine tasks unconsciously. This prevents us from overloading. Just imagine having to consciously decide on every step you take as you walk. Or consciously decide to breathe in and out - on every breath!

That'd be a lot of work, won't it? Thankfully, we carry out most of our daily activities on autopilot. But do you realize how much of the things we do daily that are done this way? One research says it's a whopping 96%!

The problem is that this mechanism that is supposed to protect us, is also disengaging us from living purposeful lives.

We don't think into the reasons we do most of the things we do. We do them just because we've always done them. We do them on autopilot.

Many of us today instinctively grab our smart phones and thumb around with it aimlessly when we don't have any business fiddling with it. We do it because it's what we've always done.

We spend countless hours each day on social media because of FOMO (the fear of missing out). Missing out on what, if I may ask? How much value is it adding to our lives?

Some of us make decisions on what to eat, what to watch on TV, where to go or what to wear without putting any thinking into the "why".

Because we do so many things without thinking of why we do them, we get the same results. Most of the time, we get the same mediocre results. But, if you want your results to change, you have to become intentional about the thinking that's driving your actions.

Thinking through your behaviors will change your results. All you need to do is ask yourself "why?"

Are you spending most of your time on behaviors that bring you no results? Or the ones that give you the wrong results? You must be intentional and think through why you do what you do.

What behaviors will you think through today?

You've only got so many hours in a day. Make them count!