🌱 5 Ways to Turn Off Your Autopilot and Revitalize Your Routine

Hey Reader,

As I mentioned in my previous email, if you want to turn the new seasons in your life into transformational ones, you have to turn off your 'autopilot' first.

According to a famous study, 40% of your daily actions are habits. It's probably higher than that today thanks to technology. That means about half of your day is mindlessly dictated by your autopilot, with little thought or effort from you, the passenger.

To be fair, this is a necessity. Your autopilot makes thousands of decisions a day that free up your headspace for the real problem-solving and creative thinking. You know, the non-programmable human stuff. It also helps you turn positive habits into engines of compounding growth.

But if you're not careful, you can over-automate your life and lose sight of your bigger purpose.

Too much habit robs you of the mindful moments of presence that make you human. And just like positive habits compound over time, your bad habits get exponentially more difficult to break if you keep them on autopilot for too long.

That's why you have to turn off your autopilot on a regular basis. Snapping out of your routine helps you see your blind spots, rediscover your purpose, and course-correct your actions.

Here are 5 ways to turn off your autopilot and reboot your routine:

HABIT DESIGN 📈

1. Audit Your Habits

"Effective executives, in my observation, do not start with their tasks. They start with their time. And they do not start out with planning. They start by finding out where their time actually goes."

– Peter Drucker, The Effective Executive 📚

Do you know where your time goes? It seems simple enough, but it's more complicated than just checking your timecard at work and tracking your sleep on your smartwatch. That's why it's one of the first things I ask about in my new student questionnaire.

Can you tell me right now what percentage of your day you spend on your phone and your computer? Or how much of that time you spend on work vs. WhatsApp? How about social media, Netflix, and YouTube? Similar to the person who's never counted calories before, you'll almost certainly be surprised by the results.

Thankfully, technology is a double-edged sword, so you have the tools you need to do a full audit of your time. Apps like RescueTime (desktop), Screen Time (iOS), and Digital Wellbeing (Android) help you audit your digital time, while the Everyday app helps you track your habits (good and bad), digital or analog.

MINDFULNESS 🧘🏻‍♂️

2. Journal Every Day

"Capture isn’t about doing more. It’s about taking notes on the experiences you’re already having. It’s about squeezing more juice out of the fruit of life, savoring every moment to the fullest by paying closer attention to the details."

– Tiago Forte, Building a Second Brain 📚

Now that you have some awareness about your use of time, make the time to journal about it. Writing helps you think clearly and cultivate the habit of paying attention – the opposite of being on autopilot. This is especially critical when the seasons of your life are changing. Or try speaking out loud and recording yourself.

A great question helps you realize things you didn't know you knew. That's why it's helpful to have a variety of questions to answer as you continue your journaling practice.

Here are a few journaling prompts to get started:

Are my habits serving me? Or restricting me?
How am I being complicit in creating the conditions I say I don't want?
If I say yes to [insert the change you want], what do I need to say no to?

REMOTE WORK + nomadic lifestyle 🌎

3. Go Somewhere New

"The exhilaration of travel has many sources, but surely one of them is that we recapture in some measure the unspoiled awareness of children."

– John Gardner, Self-Renewal 📚

If you've traveled somewhere new recently, you already know you're a lot more attentive and present during the trip than you are at home. You notice things that are invisible to you during your normal routine, and rediscover your childlike curiosity about people and ideas you don't think twice about in your day-to-day.

But while travel is the gift that keeps giving, it's not always doable. Thankfully, you don't need to hop on a plane to change your environment. Taking a different route to your destination or leaving your phone behind at home can have the same effect.

The mere act of going for a walk has long been a source of new thoughts for writers and artists. Why not try the same?

LANGUAGE MASTERY 🥷🏼

4. Embrace Your Incompetence

"We learn things by becoming momentarily incompetent."

– Seth Godin, on The Tim Ferriss Show 🎧

There's a framework called the 4 Phases of Competence that says you go through four stages every time you learn something new:

Unconscious Incompetence
Conscious Incompetence
Conscious Competence
Unconscious Competence

Similarly, you have to transition from unconscious consumer to conscious creator if you want to master a language.

But one of the main reasons people choose to stop mastering a language is because they get tired of the discomfort of incompetence (i.e. phases 1 and 2). They prefer to ignore the things they don't know and keep a fixed mindset.

But uncertainty (i.e. conscious incompetence) is a necessary part of growth. So are humility and patience. And the longer you wait to become aware of what you don't know (i.e. turn off your autopilot), the more difficult it becomes to break your bad habits.

Luckily, there's a shortcut to help you move to the next phase.

COACHING 🙌🏽

5. Don't Go It Alone

"I don't want to survive. I want to live!"

– Captain McCrea, WALL-E 🍿

All the practices I've mentioned above are worth developing and will undoubtedly help you heighten your awareness and turn off your autopilot. But it's much easier if you have a co-pilot.

In Pixar's WALL-E, the only character that's self-aware is WALL-E, a curious robot who has found balance by cultivating his curiosity, wonder, and hope. Ironically, it takes a robot to help the human characters turn off their autopilots and rediscover their humanity.

WALL-E introduces chaos to the other characters' predictable lives and makes them question everything and find their purpose. Working with the right coach, therapist, or accountability partner can do the same for you.

Being on autopilot is a great way to survive and keep things the same, but having people in your life that challenge you and help you see your own blind spots are necessary if you want to thrive.

school cafeteria 🍔

Things I Consumed Consciously For This Newsletter

"Your job is to collect good ideas. The more good ideas you collect, the more you can choose from to be influenced by."

– Austin Kleon, Steal Like An Artist

🍿 WALL-E, Andrew Stanton/Pixar Films (Disney+)

I've easily watched this movie over 100 times and it never gets old, though I do watch it in Portuguese now to keep it fresh. It's a masterclass in human behavior and the "villain" is the Autopilot. Rewatch it with that in mind and tell me what you notice.

🎧 The Tim Ferriss Show #476, with Seth Godin (Spotify)

When one of my favorite question-askers interviews one of my favorite thinkers and teachers, I make the time to listen and take lots of notes. You should, too.

📲 Break Out of Your Routine, Chris Fowler (Instagram Reels)

Speaking of turning off your autopilot by going somewhere new, one of my favorite sportscasters shares some wisdom during a hike in this short video. His videos are always short and mindful.

HOW I CAN HELP

"Whereas the passion mindset focuses on what the world can offer you, the craftsman mindset focuses instead on what you can offer the world." – Cal Newport

If you’re ready to take the next step in your language journey, there are three ways I can help:

Flight Plan English ✈️

Want to work with a co-pilot that can make your language journey simple and fun again with proven systems that have helped 250+ students? My language coaching methodology will help you unblock your English, redesign your habits, and start speaking confidently when you need it most.

Schedule your free test flight here.

Make Language Pages Simple with Rocket Fuel 🚀

Rocket Fuel was designed to make your language practice simple, playful, and daily. That's why it's the best and most cost-effective way to unblock your English:

Speak your daily pages thanks to 24-hour limit
Rediscover playtime and get creative when you reply
Uncover your main blocks with daily feedback from me
Get comfortable being a beginner again in our 1:1 space

Sign up using this link and get a free 1:1 onboarding call (30 minutes) with me to get to know each other so we can navigate around any failure points together.

Prefer to start now and schedule later? Sign up here

Still not sure? Try a free challenge, or see what users are saying. Here's a preview:

Rocket Fuel – Interview Intensive 🤝

Ready to change your narrative and revitalize your professional journey? Workshop your unique stories and identify your strengths with 10 days of strategic interview challenges that will prepare you for whatever comes next.

Join this month's intensive at the active student rate of $49 (normally $99).

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Have a great week!

– Juan

3745 NE 171 Street Apt.5, North Miami Beach, Florida 33160
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