Awareness - 1st Step to Success

Picture this: it is already evening and you prepare to go to bed. You feel tired and you are just waiting to hit the pillow. Just before going into the restful sleep you think about the day and you realize that you have almost no recollection about what you did. You vaguely remember that you were busy all the day long doing a lot of activities, but there is no outcome you can hold on to. Ever happened to you?
How about the days when you leave your work and feel the same way? Ever experienced this type of days?
Unfortunately, from time to time, we all have these kinds of days in our lives. And, if you consider that we do more than 80% of our activities on auto-pilot, it is somewhat normal. We have our morning routines that we do almost totally without thinking on what we are doing. We have our usual route to work. We have a lot of routines that really help us to free our consciousness and to let it focus to important stuff.
Yet, there are moments when we lose control on what is happening in our life. We have to face so many activities and tasks that we lose awareness about what we are doing. And that is the first step on the downward spiral. Because it starts with a day and the next day we realize that we forgot something and it became urgent and we are again very busy. The day goes by with a lot of activities and so on and so forth.
Awareness – becoming aware about what you are doing and what you are experiencing – it is a skill that can be learned and practiced every day. You can start by noticing small stuff. Take a 15-30 minutes’ walk in your lunch break and count how many people that you see are wearing something red. When you are waiting in line at the car wash, notice the people and the cars around you.
Success is a great journey and auto-pilot will take you wherever you program it. Become aware about your routines and where do they lead you. Pay attention to your auto-pilot and how you programed it.
Being aware about everything what you are doing unconsciously and, more important, about the outcome that you get from your routines, it is the real first step in your journey to success.