One of my favorite sayings is “Remember what you know”. I can’t attribute it to any one person but after some searching on the internet I’ve found that a variation of this appears in Revelations in the Bible. These 4 words define so many of my successful and failed decisions.
Each and every one of us has spent a life time learning new things and growing. We all have a vast number of life experiences that define who we are and what we know. Each of these experiences provide insights and lessons that can be applied to future situations. The problem is many of us don’t take the time to leverage our past experiences and apply it to our current situation. We get so busy living our lives and taking care of responsibilities that we begin operating on autopilot. These periods of autopilot often times result in silly actions that make absolutely no sense and just waste your time. At worst, these periods can result in harmful actions with severe repercussions, think about those times where you’ve driven 5 miles and don’t remember any of it because you were driving on autopilot.
So how do you prevent autopilot. Stop for 30 seconds before starting any activity, take a few deep breaths and think about what you are about to start doing. Have you done anything like this in the past. What did you do that was successful. What didn’t work. If the experience is brand new, you have a great opportunity to learn and grow!
By performing this simple exercise, you are calming yourself, and “Remembering what you know”. Try it for every activity you have tomorrow. See how productive you are.
