7 Habits on Auto-Pilot That Slowly Ruin You — Beware to Stop Them

You may not even realize you have these habits. Scary!

We all know how powerful habits are in our lives, they shape much of who we are so they are intrinsically linked to our identity.

Habits are both good and bad and all of us have a combination of both.

The trick in life is to cultivate good habits and get rid of bad habits.

It’s basic 101 science. I’m not telling you anything new here.

But I’m here to tell you from personal experience that some habits, one’s on autopilot are often the hardest to eliminate as you’re not aware of them.

You’re dealing with an unseen enemy.

You don’t know what you don’t know!

Autopilot is one of the worst places to be in your life. The only time you want to be on it is with good habits and when you’re traveling on a plane.

Slowly ruining you

These habits are automated like driving your car, brushing your teeth, etc.

With time they wreak havoc on your life as bit by bit they chip away at your overall functionality.

So you want to be aware of them and then do what’s required to eliminate them.

In my personal experience, the following seven habits wreak havoc on most people’s lives.

I’ve done a lot of work in ridding myself of them and still do the work as I know they can sneak up on me anytime without my conscious awareness.

So I can share my learnings here and my action steps to remove them to help you.

Habit 1: reacting instead of responding

Most of us due to our upbringing and programming react to situations and people instead of responding.

So it’s only natural then that we go through life mostly reacting instead of responding when challenging situations come up.

Reacting puts you on a bad track…..

You give your power away, your judgment is cloudy, and you jump to conclusions too quickly, and this leads to many misunderstandings.

It’s been said that being reactive is the number one cause of most misunderstandings in life.

This has led to many relationship breakdowns both personal and business.

As I’ve grown in myself, especially this past year with my mom’s cancer diagnosis I’ve noticed just how reactive I can be. I am not proud of it.

It’s taken me a long long time to come to this realization as this habit was on autopilot. I don’t know what I don’t know!

Now that I’ve become aware I can do something about it.

How powerful is that?

You can too if you are mostly reacting instead of responding.

3x action steps to help you react less & respond more:

• When you feel that burst of reaction about someone or something pause and ask ‘What else could this mean?’ “Am I reading this wrong?’
• If the situation or person is wrong instead of reacting learn to respond by letting it go, so it doesn’t control you. Let it go both mentally & physically. Don’t let it consume you.
• Go for a walk it’s like walking it off — your anger, frustration, etc. Or if you prefer run it off!

Habit 2: lack of self-awareness

Gary Vee once said that one of his superpowers was self-awareness.

No doubt this has served him well and contributed to his epic success.

The reality is most of the human population scores really low on self-awareness as it’s not emphasized and taught enough by society.

This also contributes to a lot of reacting instead of responding so the two feed off each other.

It’s fair to say that only 2% to 5% of people are self-aware, the rest have blinkers on, and they are in a deep hypnotic state.

For some people, self-awareness comes easier than for others.

I think being introverted, introspective, and a perpetual learner, makes you more self-aware.

I know these have helped me and continue to help me with being more self-aware.

But all of us can develop self-awareness at any stage and age of our life if we make a committed decision to do so.

Lack of self-awareness often leads to poor decision-making, not knowing or recognizing one’s strengths and weaknesses in life.

3x action steps to help with self-awareness:

• Learn to be present daily. I like to be present doing the dishes, observing nature, and spending time in reflection.
• Spend time learning about yourself — read self-help books, read medium articles, listen to podcasts, journal, etc.
• Watch your thoughts — monitor them and be selective of what thoughts you mostly entertain. These shape much of who you are.

Habit 3: not listening to your intuition

Along with self-awareness Gary Vee said his second superpower was intuition.

Again it’s helped him achieve massive success.

The truth is all of us have intuition but not all of us have developed this higher faculty so we need to work on it a bit more.

For most people, it’s on autopilot and underutilized.

But intuition like self-awareness is both a superpower and a great habit to have.

The best journalists, police officers, soldiers, and business people all have highly developed intuitions.

Intuition is your invisible ally and friend throughout life.

3x action steps to help cultivate intuition:

• Close your eyes & sit in silence for five minutes each day and ask for guidance. I promise you it will come. Just practice, practice, practice.
• When at a bookstore or library even online practice being guided by your intuition to a book. Just say “Intuition guide me to the right book!”
• When you have a feeling either good or bad that doesn’t go away explore it. Don’t ignore it. It could change or save your life!

Habit 4: not paying attention to thoughts

This is probably the number one habit on autopilot for most people.

Real and conscious deliberate thinking requires far more effort than daily automatic thinking.

In fact, it is the hardest work in the world. It’s really a full-time job.

So most people shrink away from the task.

The reality is we can’t pay attention to every single thought we have.

Scientists estimate we have at least 60,000 thoughts per day so it would be impossible to monitor and then consciously select every single thought.

There’s no need for it, rather we should just focus on a few main thoughts that consistently keep popping up.

These are the ones shaping you, molding your inner dialogue which molds your behavior, habits, actions, and ultimately destiny.

You need a reasonable amount of self-awareness to be able to do this ‘thought’ monitoring and selection in the first place.

Daily pay attention to what overall thoughts and even feelings you consent to. Remember thoughts and feelings are connected and influence behavior.

3x action steps to help with thoughts:

• Start paying more attention to your inner dialogue, is it mostly positive or negative? Being aware of it is the first step to changing it.
• Reprogram your mind with empowering thoughts — you don’t need a hypnotist or psychologist. This is DIY programming and it works. I should know as I’ve done it. Just follow my steps!
• Watch who you spend time with — people, books, TV shows, etc. It’s all being dumped into your mind. Remember “who you spend time with is who you become,” says Tony Robbins.

Habit 5: overeating

Given the huge emphasis on physical health and physical beauty these days more and more people have become conscious of their eating habits.

However many still have a long way to go especially in countries like North America where obesity is rampant.

But strangely enough, you’ll find even people that generally eat well and look after themselves are guilty of this one eating habit — overeating!

Many of them don’t even realize they overeat.

It’s all subconscious but it shows up in the physical.

I was one of these people that overate and am still prone to it now but thankfully have much better awareness and self-control.

It was my dear mom who made me aware of my habit of overeating.

She made me realize that I would often go back for seconds or thirds after eating my initial meal.

I’ve trained myself now not to go back for seconds and thirds at least not every day. It’s okay sometimes but definitely not on a daily basis.

This habit has helped me maintain a better weight along with practicing intermittent fasting and exercising most days.

3x action steps to help with overeating:

• Discipline yourself to not go back for seconds and thirds. Eating a well-balanced meal with adequate protein, fat, and carbs helps with this.
• Have a strong ‘WHY’ for staying in shape — more confidence, developing a better self-image, feeling healthy, etc. Research shows a strong why makes it easier to stick to your overall fitness goals.
• Move your body most days — go for a walk & engage in some form of exercise 3–4 times a week. Doesn’t have to be the gym. Martial arts, dancing, hiking, etc are all valid forms of exercise.

Habit 6: not budgeting

Most people don’t have a full grasp on their spending behavior which often results in much frustration and even arguments if others are involved.

It was only recently through doing a financial plan as part of my business training that I become aware of just how much money I spend.

It was confronting to see that per year I spend $634 (AUD) on a gym membership and $240 (AUD) on a LinkedIn members group.

Doing a budget is confronting but we need to be confronted.

You can’t afford to stick your head in the sand when it comes to your finances.

Yet so many people do!

They don’t know their spending, their debts, and overall savings.

This is a bad place to be in and so it’s a really bad habit to have.

Financial literacy is a must to have not a nice to have.

But if you are not deliberate and intentional with money, your finances just end up on auto-pilot.

3x action steps to help with your finances:

• Do a budget (a simple Excel sheet will do). Track your spending and savings. Watch out for financial leaks — coffee, subscriptions, bank fees, etc. Like water leaks, these add up.
• Get finance and tax savvy. Read money books, listen to money podcasts, and have a good accountant to help you.
• Use compound interest to your advantage. This is the only money habit you want on autopilot. Einstein said, “Compounding is the 8th wonder of the world.”

habit 7 — being busy, not being productive

Being “busy’’ and running around is a neurotic habit.

But, most of the human population has programmed themselves into believing that being busy is a normal part of life.

It isn’t, it gets you nowhere and leads to burnout, overwhelm, and not getting things done or at least the right things done.

Most people seem to be stuck in this crazy loop of ‘busy land.’

Perhaps you are one of them?

Getta out of there!

It’s a dangerous place to be in especially if you want to be efficient and effective.

This is what being productive is all about.

You’ll never be productive by being busy.

Being busy doesn’t allow you to be efficient and effective.

It eats up your mental bandwidth and makes your life monotonous.

But being productive allows you to focus on what truly matters.

The best way to be productive is get rid of your long to-do list and structure your days around a few main goals.

These are goals that move the needle in your life. Enable you to make progress.

Don’t have more than six as it gets too much.

You’ll start feeling ‘busy’ again.

Be productive, not busy.

Let this be your work mantra.

3x action steps to not be busy:

• Read The One Thing — The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results. It will change your life by helping you focus on your one thing. This in itself will torpedo your productivity.
• Replace your to-do list with a goal list. It gives order, direction, and purpose to your days. I structure my days Monday to Saturday (Sundays are a day off) around 6 goals. If I don't get all of them done, I still make progress and am productive.
• Eliminate time leaks — checking emails constantly, notifications, not managing interruptions, too much time on the phone, etc.

Final thoughts

As you can see these 7 habits are mostly on autopilot for most people.

You might be one of them.

Don’t beat yourself up about it.

Just be aware and implement the steps mentioned here to change them.

Remember these habits have the power to cause enormous damage to your life.

They chip away day by day at your overall fulfillment, potential, and functionality so you cant enjoy life to the fullest.

If you have just one of these bad habits you are derailing your progress in life.

So it is of the utmost importance to do what you can to eliminate them.

To recap here, they are:

1. reacting not responding
2. lack of self-awareness
3. not listening to your intuition
4. Not paying attention to thoughts
5. overeating
6. not budgeting
7. being busy, not productive

Habits work both for us and against us and the above 7 work against us so we have a responsibility and duty to do what we can to remove them.

No excuses — “I cant,” “Its just too hard” “I’m too old, too this, too that”

Has nothing to do with these and everything to do with making a committed decision to change for the better to be a better you.

Start today and work on just one or two habits.

Don’t do more as it gets heavy.

Keep it manageable.

To Create a Better You,

Sandra

3x resources to help you (not affiliate links)

Book — Atomic Habits

Article — 5 Habits to Help You Stay Out of Auto-Pilot

YouTube Video — Change your Paradigm, Change your Habits