Turn Off Autopilot, Presence Over Productivity, and Find Your People
Curious.Conscious.Change.
Happy Friday — I hope it’s a joyful one!
Here’s a question, quote, and exercise to spark curiosity, consciousness, and change.
Curious
Question to toggle yourself from autopilot to aware:
How can you add a spark of curiosity to your regular routines?
What I’ve realized about curiosity — is that it is the antidote to the mundane.
A spark of curiosity takes you from unconscious autopilot to alert awareness.
Much of life is spent “going through the motions”.
The everyday routine.
When asked, “How was your day, or what did you get up to today?” — a common response is “Same old, same old”.
Which translates to “Every moment today felt the same as yesterday”.
Sometimes I am guilty of this — but when I pull myself out of the fire, something brilliant happens.
A normal day for me consists of a few places.
Home, gym, and the places I bypass on the way.
As I was cycling to the gym recently, a thought popped into my head that reminded me — every moment is new.
It prompted me to lift my head and notice what was around me.
There a rainbow shone through the grey sky — that’s when the realization settled in:
Curiosity replaces dullness with colour.
Conscious
Quote on prioritizing presence over productivity:
"Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and start experiencing them by degree of presence." - Alan Watts
As I said, in a previous post — the pursuit of goals and improvement are worthwhile endeavours — but no striving is more worthy than the joy of being.
That’s what ‘live free’ is all about.
You can read the full post here:
Change
Exercise to find your community:
The message here is that you don’t have to confine yourself.
If your community does not support your sense of well-being — there’s no reason to stay.
Finding community is like playing a game of snakes and ladders.
Surround yourself with the right people and soar up the board. Land in the wrong group and you’ll slither down.
The good news is that you can avoid or escape the slippery slopes.
The key difference between the game of snakes and ladders and the game of finding your people — is that the former is a game of chance.
You roll the dice and hope that they fall in your favour.
I wouldn’t recommend rolling the dice with your mental and physical health.
Finding the right community for you — doesn’t involve luck.
How do you win the game of finding the right community?
Step 1: Articulate what matters to you
Step 2: Identify communities that share the same values
Step 3: Get involved
It is that simple.
If you’re not sure how to identify communities sharing common values with you — start by looking at their websites, newsletters, and social channels, or get feedback from someone who is part of the community.
Demonstrating your values is like walking around with a magnet attached to you. The people you want to attract will pull toward you.
Live Free,
Niall
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Hi Niall, Thank you for encouraging and offering tips to stimulate Curiosity, consciousness/intentionality, mindfulness, and change. As a caregiver, I've reprogrammed my measures of success and productivity toward meaningful tiny moments. My mindful presence IS productivity in our setting because it's significant to each of us. Many caregivers struggle emotionally when the list of carer 'duties' is not all done or not performed to a 'standard'—guilt and frustration are common because it's in service/love of someone else.
I'm sharing this not as a comparison of importance or competition but as encouragement alongside your article to challenge the auto-pilot norm or productivity culture. Our one most expensive possession is time. Reimagining personal success aligned with meaningful values is how we can get closer to feeling purpose-filled, and that life is worth-our-while.
Niall, I appreciate your ability to reframe your perspective in an otherwise ordinary moment. Nature speaks to me like that, too: I'm stuck in my head, ruminating, and suddenly, if I look up, I notice something profound. Once, it was a sapling sprouting from the base of a rotting maple tree I'd passed over a hundred times. Once, it was the rare sighting of an Eastern screech owl in our suburban backyard. Last night, it was witnessing a brilliant full moon in a clear night sky.
I think we can discover new perspectives when we stop to notice things, just pay attention to what's around us. Then, to what's within us.