Most people, at some point in their life, sleep walk through a day (or many days). We put the needle on automatic pilot and set sail. Snore. Don’t think. Go through the motions.
Quite frankly, sometimes you have to live days like that or you’d never survive given the frenetic pace of modern life. Trying to keep up with too much drives most of us occasionally crazy, so sleepwalking is a good thing and necessary.
A couple of weeks back, I stopped at the front desk of our fitness facility. The previous night, after making some eggs for dinner for me and my wife, I absentmindedly put the eggs in the freezer. No biggie. I figured it out reasonably quickly and put them back in the frig where they belonged.
As I got to the front desk, the woman behind the counter asked how things were going. I related the story from the previous evening about putting the eggs in the freezer. She laughed. Then she told a couple of similar tales herself. Things like putting dog food in the cat dish, hanging her clothes in her kid’s closet. Nothing much, nothing bad. But just enough to demonstrate she’d been airmailing it in that day.
We laughed. We came up with multiple examples on how we put stuff away in the wrong place without thinking because our minds are someplace else, preoccupied.
My favorite from many years ago was putting the cereal away in the refrigerator when I was done eating breakfast and putting the milk in the pantry. The only reason this doesn’t happen anymore is because I no longer eat cereal. Smart decision. No more sour milk and ice cold Post Raisin Bran.
If you think about it, we’re probably fortunate that more dangerous things don’t happen to all of us every day given how distracted we are, and how many stimuli we’re hit with daily. Sometimes I’m amazed we all can drive cars on highways, and pile-ups and accidents don’t occur instantaneously and frequently. It’s incredible given that we navigate these machines at fast speeds with thousands of other vehicles on the roads with each person facing their issues of the day, and most of us get safely to and from work, school or shopping.
Though I do imagine when we get home some of us leave the door open to the car after bringing the groceries in, or we forget to put the garage door down. Like I did last week in two separate situations.
We forget. We lose focus. Something else grabs our attention and what we’re doing becomes secondary, so we act on instinct without thinking.
Breaking the routine can even be dangerous. I charge both my smart phones nightly when I get home from work. God forbid that I don’t do it right away. When I’ve broken that routine and put away laundry or taken out the recycling instead, both phones sat on our counter, draining their batteries. Dead in the morning.
It’s important to shake up your routine, and also to remain focused on what you’re doing. There’s balance in there somewhere that allows you to keep things interesting without putting the cereal in the refrigerator. If you figure it out, let me know.
Quite frankly, sometimes you have to live days like that or you’d never survive given the frenetic pace of modern life. Trying to keep up with too much drives most of us occasionally crazy, so sleepwalking is a good thing and necessary.
A couple of weeks back, I stopped at the front desk of our fitness facility. The previous night, after making some eggs for dinner for me and my wife, I absentmindedly put the eggs in the freezer. No biggie. I figured it out reasonably quickly and put them back in the frig where they belonged.
As I got to the front desk, the woman behind the counter asked how things were going. I related the story from the previous evening about putting the eggs in the freezer. She laughed. Then she told a couple of similar tales herself. Things like putting dog food in the cat dish, hanging her clothes in her kid’s closet. Nothing much, nothing bad. But just enough to demonstrate she’d been airmailing it in that day.
We laughed. We came up with multiple examples on how we put stuff away in the wrong place without thinking because our minds are someplace else, preoccupied.
My favorite from many years ago was putting the cereal away in the refrigerator when I was done eating breakfast and putting the milk in the pantry. The only reason this doesn’t happen anymore is because I no longer eat cereal. Smart decision. No more sour milk and ice cold Post Raisin Bran.
If you think about it, we’re probably fortunate that more dangerous things don’t happen to all of us every day given how distracted we are, and how many stimuli we’re hit with daily. Sometimes I’m amazed we all can drive cars on highways, and pile-ups and accidents don’t occur instantaneously and frequently. It’s incredible given that we navigate these machines at fast speeds with thousands of other vehicles on the roads with each person facing their issues of the day, and most of us get safely to and from work, school or shopping.
Though I do imagine when we get home some of us leave the door open to the car after bringing the groceries in, or we forget to put the garage door down. Like I did last week in two separate situations.
We forget. We lose focus. Something else grabs our attention and what we’re doing becomes secondary, so we act on instinct without thinking.
Breaking the routine can even be dangerous. I charge both my smart phones nightly when I get home from work. God forbid that I don’t do it right away. When I’ve broken that routine and put away laundry or taken out the recycling instead, both phones sat on our counter, draining their batteries. Dead in the morning.
It’s important to shake up your routine, and also to remain focused on what you’re doing. There’s balance in there somewhere that allows you to keep things interesting without putting the cereal in the refrigerator. If you figure it out, let me know.