How much of your day do you go through on auto-pilot?

We live in such a fast-paced, action-driven culture that few of us actually review our days to see how much of them are by choice.

It is a daunting reality when you realize very little of your life is your current choice.

This is why we crave new experiences–restaurants, vacations, lovers–in an endless attempt to feel alive.

What if we started to create newness in our life as a daily choice?  It requires being wide-eyed awake in daily life to start choosing rather than being a robot. Tama Kieves, author of a great book —This Time I Dance, recently wrote in Huff Post, “The rat will always push the lever where the pellets are.” Have you become a well trained rat?

Ugh! No one wants to admit this. But most of us have.

Try for the next 24 hours to ask yourself, before you do anything, “Is this what I choose to do, or am I fulfilling a role, meeting someone else’s expectations, or maybe just doing what I always do?”

Then make a choice. You will be surprised how much of your day is filled with things you do on auto-pilot and how few people will care when you actually stop.

What will happen next?

You will start living a life on purpose and perhaps to your surprise, each day will start to feel more alive, unexpected things will flow into the space you have opened that make your days feel more magical, and you will again be living!