Are You Living Your Life On Autopilot?

Live your life aware, awake, and with intention.

It’s both healthy and necessary to assess your life regularly. Take a close look at your finances, social-emotional health, mental well-being, and whether or not you feel connected to your purpose.

Why? Because most days, we are drifting on autopilot. We are unaware of how we feel, why we feel what we feel, or even that we’ve lost the ability to feel. We live a life unfulfilled, empty of hope and dreams. We’re just going through the motions — the monotonous, dull, and dry activities of everyday life.

When a plane is on autopilot, sure, it’s still headed for a destination. But who is in control of it? No one. That means if a plane approaches danger, there’s no one to take control of it and keep it out of harm’s way. The same goes for us. If we continue to let, our lives soar on autopilot, even though we are headed for a destination, we relinquish any control of our lives and expose ourselves to harm. Instead of playing an active part in our success, joy, or purpose, we give up and just let things happen as they may.

I’ve realized today that I, too, have been on autopilot lately. I haven’t played an active part in the life I claim I want. Not as active as I should be anyway. At some point, navigating my way through stormy and cloudy situations made me tired. I couldn’t see my way, which made me anxious and doubt my ability to reach my destination.

Where have I been headed? I’ve been on this journey to becoming a full-time writer for years. The trip started in my prayers and then in my dreams. They began to elevate into action, and then things got complicated. Life was happening, and again, I got tired from not seeing my way through the clouds. So, autopilot it was. But I realize that during autopilot I got complacent, and I started losing altitude. I felt it in my body.

I feel it in my body. The fear of losing more momentum is real. The fear of forfeiting my dreams because I deemed life too hard is eye-opening. Just coasting through my career as a writer is unacceptable, and I am headed for a sea of regrets.

So, what’s my plan to take back control of my dream? I will enforce the courage that I know is within me and get myself together. Storms will come. And, so what?

Do challenges make giving up an option? Not unless we make it an option. We have to flip this autopilot switch and take back control of our lives by being intentional about the journey until we get to where we are going.

We all go through seasons where we find ourselves uninvolved in what we should be involved in. Whether it’s taking an active role in our healing, in improving relationships, or in what we choose to do every day, we get lost in the daily work of it all and sometimes give up when things get too complicated.

Giving up does not have to be an option. Not being involved in your happiness does not have to be an option. You can choose for it not to be an option. And once you do, grab the yoke or wheel, flip off that autopilot (literally), and bravely soar right into the sunrise to your destiny.