FEATURES : Disengage Autopilot and Take Control

Our dream multiplied by hard work equals success. It’s a simple equation and perhaps clichéd, but it makes sense when presented in this organic form.

But humans are fully stocked with emotions and thoughts that tend to complicate matters that steer away from paths to success.

But what is success? Achieving success means different things to different people. While we take different paths to reach it, and regardless what it feels like, success is something most everyone desires.

Michelle Cederberg, a coach, consultant and professional speaker, shared during the APEGS annual meeting her presentation The Success-Energy Equation: How to Regain Focus, Recharge Your Life and Really Get Sh!t Done.

Cederberg, the author of The Success-Energy Equation, equates success to being happy, healthy and financially stable. Again, all three variables are subjective. However, most people want some form of each.

“Success is how we define it for ourselves,” she says. “The sooner we can define it and be OK with it, it’s a great starting point for moving forward.”

“The challenge is we don’t often take the time or have the time to think clearly about what success means to us. As life gets busy, we think about these things and we all have the best intentions to be better versions of ourselves. When we can work at those things regularly then we can have more success.”

“But we don’t always do the things we want because we’re good at making excuses and procrastinating and getting distracted with things that don’t lead us to success.”
“Everyone has the best intentions to be better and do better,” she says. “When we’re hard on ourselves for not getting stuff done, we have misplaced blame. We don’t have enough time and energy to get to everything on our plate. We say ‘yes’ more often. We get distracted with things that aren’t helping us drive forward.”

Cederberg highlighted a few vehicles that may help us avoid these natural and common barriers. Here are a few ideas:

• Setting clear goals. Be present and take your brain off autopilot.
• Believe and trust in yourself regarding these goals. What you think affects the action you take.
• Be disciplined to get the work done. Evaluate your habits, identify your skills, focus and be determined.
• Find the energy. Take your breaks during the day. Recharge your body and brain with healthy eating. Get sufficient sleep and regular exercise. Connect with people you like to talk with.

“When we harness the energy within us, we can blow the roof off our success possibilities,” Cederberg says. “Plus, good physical health is a foundation for personal and professional growth in everything.”

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, life has been put on hold and resulted in a mindset of waiting for things to get back to normal before proceeding with plans, whether they be personal or professional.

Routines have changed. Lives have been disrupted and the focus on achieving success may have been lost.

“The challenge for many people who are working from home these days is the lines between work and life have been blurred,” Cederberg says. “When life gets busy and we get stressed – counter to what is right – we tend to put our own self care to the side.”

Personal care and engaging in “the fun things in life” have
been set aside. Those treasured vacations haven’t
happened. Navigating the pandemic has been disruptive in
trying to home-school children, caring for our aging and
stressed parents, and scrolling on social media and reading
conflicting and troubling news stories.

Cederberg says now more than ever, people need to be
taking care of their physical body and mind so they have
the resilience and the energy to keep all of those juggling
balls in the air.

For many engineers and geoscientists who are
accustomed to working with machinery, the human body
presents a new challenge.

“The human body is a resilient piece of machinery,”
Cederberg says. “It will put up with a lot of stress and strain
before it starts to break down. We take that false sense of
security and we keep on pushing into the stress and doing
the work and telling ourselves we’ll get back to taking care
of our health when all of this covid is over and life is simpler.”

But the body, unlike pieces of metal, gears and belts,
is the only piece of machinery that actually gets stronger
with use. It breaks down when it is not being used.
Cederberg stressed the importance of shifting from
autopilot to being more present physically and mentally.
She said people have a tendency to become robotic with
their actions – something commonly referred to as “going
through the motions.”

“As soon as we are faced with a novel and new problem or
challenge – like so many things that have been thrown at us
during the pandemic – we will need our full brain capacity,”
she says. “All of a sudden, our autopilot shuts off and we’re
left sitting there wondering what we’re going to do.”
“We have so many decisions to make every day and most
are happening at the subconscious level. When our brain
operates on autopilot, we can get stuck in that mode if
we’re so busy and stressed.”

“But if it becomes your go-to operating system then you
do run the risk of after several months or years suddenly
realizing you didn’t mean to move in that direction.”
Cederberg insists people can accomplish more if they
prioritize the simple daily tasks to keep the energy moving.
She asks people to listen to their body and take regular
breaks throughout the day, breaks people are forgetting
to take.

“Our brains need breaks too, and it’s not getting the
sufficient break it needs right now,” she says. “Take a
technology break and go for a walk. Do it three times a day
and see how much better you feel and how much more
productive you’ll be.”

“The definition of success is different for everyone,
but we often don’t stop long enough to ask, ‘What is
important to me?’ It’s the big little question and it
sounds simple, but when you think about the
answer, it really isn’t.”

– Michelle Cederberg, author, coach, consultant and speaker