v25.1: Forever Friday

Good morning folks,

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What if every day felt like a Friday?  Better yet, what if every day felt like the Friday before a long weekend?  I could really go for a Friday before a long weekend right now.  Oh wait!

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This is a long weekend for us here in Canada.  Of course for my friends to the South your long weekend is next weekend.  I like the feeling of a Friday before a long weekend mostly because it not only means a 3 day weekend but it also means a 4 day week to follow.  Rather than starting work on a Monday, you're starting on a Tuesday and before you know it, Friday is back and you're looking at another weekend.  Also, with the weather getting nice out, these longs weekends will be well enjoyed by my family as we make plans to spend more time outdoors.

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Have you ever had a moment where you were truly on autopilot?  It can be a scary experience especially when you're behind the wheel of a vehicle on the highway.  I used to experience this quite a bit while living out West when I had to be at work for 6am every day.  My younger sister would always want to drop by in the evening and watch a movie or play games.  My bedtime back then was "early" meaning sometime between 9pm and midnight.  There were the odd occasions where I just needed sleep and would hit the pillow early and then be woken up a couple hours later to loud music or sounds coming from my stereo.  Sometimes this would last well into the night but for the most part they ended around midnight.  I was so tired the next morning that I would literally be on auto-pilot on my way to work.  While I was conscience for the entire trip, my brain was not "recording" the trip.  When I arrived at work, I only had a fuzzy recollection of how I got there.  This is common in big cities where people normally take transit to work but need to take their vehicle one day.  They end up forgetting they took their vehicle and take transit home only to find out their vehicle is still at work.  The reverse has happened to me before only because I hate transit and avoid it at all costs so when I walked through the parking garage looking for my car one day, I had completely forgot I took the bus that morning.

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There is a word for this type of behavior, it is called Habit.

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There was a research study done not long ago that determined that the majority of us go through our regular day with only 5% of our thoughts being conscience; the remaining 95% of our thoughts are on autopilot.  Humans are creatures of habit and when we wake up in the morning our brain kicks in our normal morning routine and tells our bodies what to do without a conscience thought being used.  Ever have one of those mornings where you wake up, you shower, you get dressed and you get ready for work then something sparks a conscience thought and you realize it is the weekend?  This is usually not a big issue for people who typically work a 9-5 job during the week (unless you've had a long weekend recently) but for those who can work any day of the week, it is easy to get into an auto-routine or habit of waking early, getting ready for work and in some cases, actually going to work.  This has actually happened to me during a holiday and thankfully I realized it half way to work so when I got home, I was only gone for about 15 minutes and I called it "going for coffee" when asked what I was doing up so early.

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If you're like me, the thought of being on autopilot 95% of your day seems a bit scary.  So what can we do to break out of this autopilot mode and start actually having conscience thought?  There are a few ways to accomplish this but I find the easiest way to break out of the daily habit is to mix things up a bit in the morning.  For example, if you're used to getting up and having a shower and then getting breakfast, mix it up a bit and have breakfast first and then have a shower.  If you're used to letting the dog out, going to brush your teeth then going to bed, try brushing your teeth first then letting the dog out before you go to bed (don't forget to bring the dog back in though).  You can see that humans are a creature of habit and we perform the same steps throughout our daily lives because they make sense.  Whoever said you needed to shower as soon as you got out of bed?  Some people use the shower to wake them up in the morning which is fine but did you know you can achieve the same amount of "wake-up" by having a bowl of cereal?  I know, it sounds strange but I urge you to give it a try sometime.  Just make sure you give yourself enough time to still have that shower in the morning because it is easy to get into that "rut" where you're used to reading the morning paper while having breakfast and then rushing out the door for work.  This is a habit you'll need to break in your own way.

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There are many other types of habits that put us on autopilot.  For myself, I used to come home from work every day, greet the family, go check my email and forums, eat supper, login to WoW.  Even my WoW life was on autopilot some days as I would login and do the exact same thing every single time.  It got to a point where I was so bored playing WoW that I would literally waste hours of my day sitting there running in circles waiting for something to do that was different; which hardly ever happened.  Imagine if I had got up from my chair and phsysically ran around while I waited?

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Anyway folks I need to take off and break some more habits.  Maybe I'll just get up from my desk and walk out and head home.  See how long it takes for someone to notice my absence.  I urge you all to do something today that it outside of your normal routine.  Pick something minor and change it around a bit and see how you feel.

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Cheers,
Al