Your alarm goes off and you hit snooze. It goes off again and you lie awake while scrolling social media for 10 minutes before actually getting out of bed. You get up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, watch Netflix, and go to bed. Sound familiar?

The vast majority of people live their lives like this every single day. It’s important to note that there isn’t anything inherently wrong with it, so long as it’s not a regular occurrence. But once you realize you’ve fallen into this type of routine; you’ve already been in it so long that it’s difficult to break out of it.

Why do people live like this? Simply put, because it’s comfortable. The lack of daily challenges, future goals, and a desire to achieve more means less work and less overall stress. But I’ll pose the question: Does this really yield happiness?

Let’s say someone has been stuck in the same routine for 5 years with no real growth. At some point they’ve had to look back and think to themselves, “Man, I wish I started [something] a long time ago.” That thought is a lack of fulfillment. They look around and see people they know who have leveled up, achieved more, traveled, and created more success for themselves than if they would have stayed comfortable.

The bottom line is that living on autopilot kills fulfillment, robs us of our potential, and destroys our sense of well-being and overall happiness.

So, how do we break out of it? And more importantly, how do we make sure it doesn’t keep happening to us?

These are small, deliberate interruptions that will help change up your routine and break unconscious habits. They’re intentional moments that will break the autopilot behavior. Think of it as setting a mental alarm clock, only instead of waking you up in the morning, it wakes you up in your life. These can be mental, emotional, physical, or environmental shifts.​

Let me give some examples:​

Ask yourself, "Why am I doing this? before a habitual action.

Taking a different route on the way to work.

Go for a walk in the neighborhood or park without headphones.

Once you start intentionally doing some of these things, you gain momentum. You’ll break out of your habits and start doing things you’ve been holding yourself back from.

Change one thing today. Take a new route, ask a new question, or say yes to something outside your comfort zone.