// WIDSIX WRITTEN WORD //

Take The Road Untraveled

Heading home from work on a Friday is a glorious feeling…until you arrive at your destination only to realize that you don’t remember the drive home.

Life is an abundance of choices. From the moment we wake to the moment we sleep, we make thousands of decisions. Our decisions come from past decisions we have made and the learning curve we have established since making our last decision. The brain, in an attempt to reduce the number of decisions we use energy on, sets many of our choices and actions on autopilot. If we are not careful this autopilot mode can get us into some trouble as well as leave us feeling unsatisfied.

Routine is rooted in autopilot mode and gives us comfort in doing the same thing over and over because it is comfortable. Our repetitious behavior limits brain growth and stunts our momentum to move forward. Getting caught doing the same thing day in and day out only leaves us restless because our basic need for exploration is not being met. Making the brain work will change the course of our day to day life. This change starts with the undeniable choice to stretch ourselves and the way your brain functions when on autopilot.

Working each day this week to shake up my routine has led me to a path of more fulfillment. Life has become my laboratory, feeding my curiosity to learn more and become better. Don’t get me wrong, this change hasn’t happened overnight nor have I become a master of living a life committed to shaking up the system. I have simply begun my journey to rewiring the brain and changing my brain’s autopilot mode so that I may gain the intelligence to control my reactions to the everyday trials of life and take advantage of each moment that has been given to me. The purpose of choosing a path different from the “normal” routine leads to an increased amount of spontaneous courage, an amplified feeling of being fully alive in the moment and the opportunity to live life by our own design.

Why work to do the same thing everyday, when you can live each day with spontaneity that leads you to experience a full life and an abundance of joy? If you want to see life from a fresh perspective, wake up each morning and ask yourself, “ What is no one else doing today?” Then do that. Let’s be different today, let’s be different everyday and take the road you’ve yet to travel.