It is easy to wake up each morning and fall into routine. Sometimes it doesn’t even require thought as it has been done so many times before. Ever left the house and wondered if you closed the garage door, so you drove back to the house to see? And in most cases, of course you did, you just weren’t conscious of your actions in the moment.
I recently accompanied my husband and brother on their adventure of driving Nascars around a track. They drove powerful race cars that reach amazing speeds (yes, they each drove and hit 150mph). When their drives were complete I heard: “That was both exhilarating and scary at the same time”; “I realized during the drive how much I had to drive the car, it doesn’t drive itself. It’s a different type of driving from driving my own car. There were more forces working on the car and I had to pay more attention. I couldn’t afford not to.”
As they continued to relay their experiences I could hear how they remembered specifically how it felt going around a turn, or how the engine felt, what they noticed. I couldn’t help but realize how in-the-moment they were throughout their drives. They had to be to stay safe, but it also connected them deeply to the experience. It differed from when often we drive our own cars and don’t always stay connected to the experience.
I bring this back to getting up in the morning. We have the choice to stay in routine and doing things mindlessly or to stay present and experience each moment, even if we have done it before. We can stay in our comfort zone knowing that it will be easy to drive forward in our lives, or we can take hold of something more powerful that may take more attention and focus, and can be exhilarating and scary.
It is of course easier to do what we are used to but we can miss out on the opportunities for so much more. Is there something in our life that you can drive a bit differently, paying more attention and experiencing the journey each step of the way? Let me know what you might choose to steer slightly differently. I’d love to know.