Stop Cruising Through Life On Auto-Pilot & Open Up To New Possibilities

Ev Chapman
March 21, 2023

Most of us go through our lives literally just running on a hamster wheel.

We wake up, we do the same things, we drive the same way to work, or eat the same meals, and we put things back in the same place.

And I'm always surprised at how much we don't stop to think about WHAT we are doing and WHY we are doing it. SHOULD we be doing it? COULD we do it a different way? Is there a different, smarter, more leveraged way we could be living our lives?

But most people just don't think like this. They are just on auto-pilot cruising through life.

I'm constantly looking at my days & trying to figure out better ways to get things done. This is the framework I follow:

Check In Regularly. At the end of days/weeks/months/years I do a very quick review and ask myself a few questions. What worked, what didn't? What can I do to get more leverage, to feel more aligned? The prompts help me think about what's important to me and doing it at regular intervals gives me a clear stopping point & breaks me out of auto-pilot.

Make a Hypothesis. Next, I come up with a hypothesis. Just like in year 7 science class - I ask myself if I tried a different course of action would that result a different outcome?

Create An Experiment. Once I have a hypothesis I start an experiment. Usually, I set a 30-day period to try out a new way of doing something. When the time period is over I can decide whether I'll continue with the new way or try something else.

This works both for really important life things (like moving house which I've done recently) and also for really trivial things (like how I do my laundry).

Liked thIS? Then You Might Like My SPARK Newsletter...

The Spark Newsletter:
Join 1,500+ knowledge workers building smarter personal knowledge systems. Every Sunday get one simple knowledge workflow upgrade to help you work smarter & with less friction.

Or Keep Browsing More Posts Like This...

Forget Goals, Focus on Intentions: My Yearly Planning Rituals That Set The Direction For A Powerful Year.

I used to hate yearly planning. And I think it comes down to my relationship with goal setting. I’m not much of a goal setter. A year is a long time and I don’t like to be locked into heavy goals throughout the year.
Read post

Stop Cruising Through Life On Auto-Pilot & Open Up To New Possibilities

Most of us go through our lives literally just running on a hamster wheel.We wake up, we do the same things, we drive the same way to work, or eat the same meals, and we put things back in the same place.
Read post

Why You Probably Don't Need To Be More Consistent In 2023

Consistency. I bet it's on your list of 'want more of it' in 2023. After all, it's the holy grail of productivity & self-improvement. And yet most of us feel like we're failing at it most of the time. But what if locking yourself into a rigid view of consistency is actually hindering you rather than helping you?
Read post

3 Lessons Strength Training Taught Me About Consistency

Strength training has taught me more about consistency than any other thing I've done in life (including growing as a creator). The other day my trainer programmed inverted rows (under a low bar and pulling/rowing up). Every time I've attempted them before I have had to do them in batches. So when she said 15 reps I yelled an expletive in my head.
Read post

Want To Accelerate Your Results? Find Ways To Show Up Daily

When starting something new you should probably find a way to do it daily. For years I thought the way to become a creator was to write two blogs a week (or 2 podcasts or two vlogs). After all, that seemed like a reasonable amount of writing each week.
Read post

Three Ways To Finally Do The Thing You've Been Putting Off

I almost signed up for an 8 week summer book writing bootcamp this morning on Instagram. I don't need another Bootcamp or mastermind or course to actually write my book. I have an outline, I have half the content for it already! But I thought maybe this is what I need to get this thing finished.
Read post