The Autopilot

You may know what it means or you may not know but it is something that everybody has.

What is the Autopilot?

Whenever you're not thinking about what you're doing, you're on autopilot. When you're driving your car, listening to the radio, thinking about the busy day you have ahead of you, you're on autopilot. When you bump into someone in the street and he says "Hi!" and you say "Hello!", you're on autopilot. When you're having a conversation with someone, you're mostly on autopilot. This also depends on what kind of person you are. Some people think very careful about what they are going to say before they say it. If that is the case, you're mostly NOT on autopilot. Some people just trust their instinct and say whatever they have on their mind. In this case, you are mostly on autopilot. It also depends who that person is and what kind of connection you have with him/her.

So When Aren't You on Autopilot?

When you are thinking about what you are going to eat, you make a conscious choice. When you are deciding where you're gonna spend your vacation, you make a conscious choice. Generally speaking, whenever you're consciously thinking about something, giving it a lot of attention, analyzing it deeply, you're not on autopilot.

Purpose of Autopilot

If you would have to consciously think about EVERYTHING you do at any time, you would have no time to think about anything else. Plus it would drive you crazy. Imagine that when you're walking you would have to think "OK, now extend the left leg, step on it.. now lift the right leg, move it forward, step on it, OK, now the left leg again". How would that be? How cool is it that you don't have to think about it? Try to consciously walk some time and see how awkward that is. Though, if you want to change the way you walk, you have to do that for approximately month to learn to walk some other way.

The autopilot is a fine mechanism that makes it easier for you to go about your day and think about new things you want to learn, new things you want to do and so on. It is also possible to consciously make fine adjustments while you're on autopilot, and make things run smoother, better or any way you choose to. If you repeatedly do that, you'll improve that process

When Should I Change Autopilot Programs?

When the existing ones are negative or when you want to improve them. If you're not confident in social situations, you can change that. If everything makes you angry or you are stressed, you can change that. If your conversation skills are not so good, you can change that. All those things are simply autopilot programs. You may think "Hey, I'm not confident because I don't trust myself and I'm fat and I don't look so good and I don't have money and...". All of those things are beliefs that you can change. The lack of confidence is simply a program that commands you to feel awkward and weak in social situations and that program is working pretty good like all of your programs. You do not lack anything, it's not because you're not that kind of person, it's not that you're not good at those kind of things it's just a program you created for yourself and now whenever such a situation comes up, your autopilot takes over and runs that program and makes you feel the way you feel, do the things you do, say the things you say.

How to Program the Autopilot

You probably are familiar with the fact that airplanes are equipped with autopilot hardware and software. It's similar for people. Your autopilot has different programs for different situations. You have autopilot software for: walking, driving your car, riding a bicycle, having conversations, eating, running, writing and a lot of other activities. It's obvious that you had to program your subconscious to learn these activities. You have learned to drive a car, ride a bicycle, write, eat and so on. In the same way you have learned to do all of that, you can program your autopilot to learn new things or you can change the things it already knows how to do.

Instead of making a list with complicated techniques, I will give you a list of things you do when you program your autopilot: repetition, learning the theory of the process, understanding the theory of the process, starting with simple things and gradually learning to do more advanced stuff. Anyway, it's enough to ask yourself: "How did I learn to eat, drive a car, write?" and you'll understand how the process of installing or changing autopilot programs works.

When you consciously focus on the things you do, you edit your habits, beliefs, autopilot programs. When you want to live, you run on autopilot. You can't have fun if you go to a party and consciously choose what to do and say all the time. You run on autopilot if you want to live those moments. In the same way, you can't change the way you behave in social situations if you just go with the flow and your flow is not that good. To change your behavior in such situations, you have to consciously think and choose what you do.

Happy programming :)