Hi guys! Welcome to Episode 541 of the Wildly Successful Lifestyle podcast! I hope this episode finds you happy and healthy.
How many of you have ever bought a new iPhone, the latest one, and then used it exactly the way you did the last one? Or maybe you got a new haircut but ended styling it exactly like you always do?
I was listening to a podcast, ironically it was a comedian but he said something so insightful. He said “Nothing changes if nothing changes”. And if you just hear that at face value you think “well duh”. But if you think about it in a little deeper way, it means more than just surface level things. You can change your hair style, you can change what you eat for a few days, you can change your husband but if you want lasting change, it has to be conscious and it has to come from within because you and I both know you’re gonna fix your hair the same way eventually because you have a routine so you hold the blow dryer the same way, you us the curling iron or the flat iron the same way, you can force yourself to eat a green smoothie for a few days but eventually the old habits creep back in, it’s a little harder to go back to the old husband but most of the time, the new one has some of the same things the old one did because we attract what we put out and humans are human, if you treat someone a certain way, they’ll respond in a certain way, if you allow someone to treat you in a certain way, that’s how they will treat you. You can change people, but you can’t “change people”.
The point is. Lasting change has to come from within. And most of us have a certain set of thoughts and rules we live by day in and day out and they are very routine and a lot of them are subconscious. So you just do it without even thinking about it. And when you want to change it’s hard because our habits become so routine, so easy that doing anything different takes work and it takes consciousness and it takes discipline. And why would you do all that when you have easy right on autopilot without any effort?
I will tell you why. We weren’t built to live on autopilot, but most of us live our adult lives acting as if we don’t have to learn anymore, we know everything that we need to know. College is done, we have the knowledge we’re gonna have now we just need to play it safe so we don’t lose what we have, we don’t break anything or God forbid we fail at something new. We sing along to songs like “Chris Stapleton” where he says “nobody wins afraid of losin, and the hard roads are the ones worth choosin” we sing along and we feel so good singing it and then we stay right in our same little groove because it’s safe. And somewhere in the back of our minds we think maybe someone will swoop in and change things for us. But that’s not how the world works. That’s how a mind on autopilot works. But a mind on autopilot will always do the safe agreed upon route.
I’m right there with you. When I did the meditation I talked about in Episode 540, where I realized my husband changed the batteries in my beloved clock for 15 years without me ever noticing it. Where was I in that scenario? In a way on autopilot. In my own little world. That had a profound effect on me. I realized that I tell myself I’m just like my dad. He doesn’t notice things either. But that’s a cop out isn’t it? As an adult, do I want be just like my dad? I mean I love him dearly, but I want to notice things. I want to be more conscious than not. That’s something I control, I know this to be true because when I had that awareness during my meditation I decided right then, I will be more aware, but that’s not what I’ve done my entire adult life so it’s going to take intentionality and a lot of it to change.
I got the new iPhone 16 pro because my iPhone was so old apple no longer carried accessories for it. Which made my little sister laugh. But who’s laughing now with the latest and greatest? Huh? Left to my old devices, she probably would get the last laugh because if I’m not careful and conscious and intentional, I will use this new phone exactly like my old one, never taking the time to learn all the cool new things it does, not taking advantage of the amazing tools right at my fingertips because well it’s good enough but when did good enough become my status quo? I don’t want good enough, none of us were born for good enough, but only some of us reach past it because comfort and ease are a drug that only we can pull ourselves away from and we’ve taught ourselves to fear the unknown and hate the discomfort so that we just kind of hang out in good enough. Well that’s not gonna do it for me, that’s not good enough. I have a class at apple to learn my new I phone tools, they won’t be wasted on me, not any more.
You see the part of us that’s our awareness, that’s our consciousness that’s the part that’s connected to God or the Universe whatever you believe it to be. That’s where flow happens. That’s where ease happens. How often during the day are you allowing yourself to connect to that? What percentage of the day do you spend in awareness and what percentage on autopilot? I’ll start. If I’m being honest, during meditation for sure and maybe a couple times during the day and a few moments at night so if I sleep 8 hours and am awake 16 hours maybe 1 hour a day do I spend being completely aware of my thoughts and the decisions I am making that affect my life. On podcast days that goes up, it has to or I’d never get it done.
But there are things I want to do that I haven’t done. Why? Because I haven’t done the conscious work needed to be done in order to do them. I want new planters for my front porch, I have to measure at home so that when I’m out looking I k ow what size is best. For a couple weeks I drove my the nursery thinking dang I still haven’t measured. I almost bought a couple the other day without doing the conscious work and they wouldn’t have been right. But now I’ve measured and I know exactly what I can do that’s going to look the best because I realized It’s no one else’s fault but mine that I don’t have what I want. So what do I need to do to get it?
That’s the question we ought to be asking? What do I need to do? Full stop. I’m starting to realize that I want to be more connected to this consciousness more time of the day, it doesn’t mean that will make me less connected to the people I love, it actually means I will be more connected because I’m not stuck in my own little closed off world. I’m not staying in my well worn path afraid to venture off in case I can’t find my way back, I actually know that whatever path I’m on is what is meant for me and the people that are meant to be in my life will always be. I don’t have to worry about that at all.
That feels right and when it feels right, it usually is. That’s the power of awareness. You have a gut feeling and when you go with that gut feeling you’re generally right and when you ignore that gut feeling or worse when you can’t even hear it, that’s when life feels off, or boring, or you feel stuck.
It’s not about changing things. It’s about changing things. There’s a big difference.
My challenge to you is to ask yourself how often you feel connected to your higher power. How often are you living with intention vs on autopilot. Be honest. The you that’s always connected to the higher power already knows the answer and is really excited you’re excited you’re asking it. It wants to be more active and we do that through meditation, through nature walks without our AirPods. Sitting quietly staying aware of our thoughts. There are lots of ways, these are the ones I’ve tried and work for me. Share this with 3 people who you feel are important in your life, I love you guys, I’ll talk to you in a few days!
