Almost regardless of the nature of the decision, or the action, there are automated processes that affect perception and ACTION in a manner that is beyond our volitional influence. The research in this area has become so compelling that the American Psychological Association devoted an entire issue in July of 1999 to explaining the research that affirms that our behavior is primarily involuntary and automated.
Why is this a critical issue in the study of motivation and goal getting?
Because many of these automated processes have been discovered, you can use these discoveries to your advantage! These automated processes create unconscious short-cuts that take us from perception of events to behavioral response. We go from perception to action without "thought" really making a difference.
Sorry that's a bit abstract. Let me make it more practical.
Remember what it was like when you learned to drive. You had to master so many different thing sit was hard to remember them all. The first weeks were so
stressful as you tried to remember all those details.
And then almost without intention the details begin to merge and you find yourself talking and driving.
Soon you are talking, changing the radio station, and sipping on your Coke.
What happened here? The details that you were managing in your conscious mind were taken over by your "automated" brain (often we call this your subconscious or unconscious mind). We know this part of our brain has almost unlimited power to manage 1000s of details and to do so in an instant!
So, why not use this to your best advantage?
It would be foolish not to wouldn't it!
Don't push my buttons!
How often have we heard ourselves, or our family members, make such comments?
We make such comments because it really feels like others have the ability, at times, to push a button and gain control over our emotional lives.
And how hard is it to break those patterns? It is extremely difficult if you are the person locked into the pattern. In fact, people can live for years and years, hating the fact that their ex partner can still "push their buttons."
How are they able to do this? They do it because the wide majority of our behavior is on "autopilot." As much as we rebel against the notion, it is clear that most of our decisions, which appear volitional, actually occur in a predictable, and automated fashion, outside of our level of conscious awareness.
What are the implications of this?
In order to function day-to-day, we must be making most decisions without conscious thought and attention, or we would exhaust ourselves before 9 am.
We have a powerful advantage when we learn to accept the role that automated processes play in decision-making and motivation.
To initiate behavior that takes us to our goals, we need to learn how to utilize these automated processes, and not rely exclusively upon conscious processes.
SUMMARY: The goals that we select do not require an act of will to operate and guide our internal information processing and our behavior. Once committed to our goal, our actions are usually activated by external, environmental information and events.
THIS IS TRULY AMAZING: Once activated, automatic processes are put into motion and operate just as if they had been consciously selected. It appears as if we select our
behavior and yet, when we moving in the direction of our goals, we KNOW that it feels automatic.
The effects of these automatic processes are so significant that this produces changes in mood and in beliefs.
What if you had the tools to automatically activate the behavior that will allow you to make your dreams come true?
READ MORE IN THE ARTICLE ON THOUGHT-LESS
ROUTINES!
