Wake Up Your Life: The Cost of Living on Autopilot

What if the life you’re longing for isn’t somewhere out there in the future… but hidden inside the life you’re already living right now?

This episode is a reminder I deeply needed myself:
don’t miss your life while waiting for someday.

We talk about how easy it is to slip into autopilot, rush through our days, and unknowingly live disconnected from what matters most.

This episode is an invitation to wake up your life again and again.

For the overthinker, the high achiever, and for when you are navigating change, this conversation will help you:

• slow down and notice what’s right in front of you
• question the motions you’re making every day
• reconnect to what actually matters
• and begin creating a life that feels more awake, present, and aligned

Life doesn't happen someday.  It's happening now.

Get on the court of your life.

Enjoy.

Share with a friend.

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Transcript

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Stop Waiting For Someday

SPEAKER_00 0:00

A deep change in the way that we live requires a deep change in the way that we think. I'm Carla Reeves, and this is differently. Hey friend, I want to talk to you today. I want to talk to the part of you that knows there's more to your life than just surviving and getting through the day. I felt that way for so much of my life, and today's episode is just a reminder that there's more than getting through the week, there's more than waiting for the next vacation or the next finish line or the next season or after graduation or when things calm down or slow down. Because if we're not careful, our whole life can become one long waiting for someday when I caught myself recently doing this, rushing through a workday, trying to get to the next day where I had more space on my calendar and time to work on a project that I was excited about. And I had to stop and remind myself that as I looked at my calendar for that day, every conversation on my calendar was so important. I don't have to rush because if I'm thinking about tomorrow, today, then I'm not present for the thing or the person that's right in front of me. Whether that's a coaching call with a client, having coffee with a friend, or a call from my son, which are all deeply important things in my life. In fact, this weekend, I actually had four days alone, which I think is like a first in like 25 years or more, definitely since being a mom. Deflecting on the weekend, I remembered that my oldest son Tom called over the weekend and he's currently in the Navy and deployed. And we got to have this unexpected long conversation. And if that had been the only thing I did all weekend, it would have been enough because it was so important. But sometimes my achiever self would have missed this because it wasn't a checkbox on the list of things I had to do. Real life and the real important things happen in between the highlights and the milestones. I work with a lot of high achievers and they frequently complain about the interruptions in their day. And I'm sure you can relate too. And I love to remind them and myself that the interruptions sometimes are the most important thing you will do that day. Life happens in the in between, the ordinary Tuesday, the drive home, while you're doing the dishes, that hard conversation in the kitchen, the way you wake up and move through your day. What we're doing in between matters more than we realize. And the invitation in today's podcast is to wake up our life over and over again, not in the old hustle way or not in a reinvent yourself or your life kind of way, but in a feet planted

Writing As A Wake-Up Practice

SPEAKER_00 3:35

in your skin, seeing things for what they are versus what you want them to be. I think for too much of my life, I lived in the realities of what my mind wanted things to be versus what they actually are right now. And I've been really learning to stay in my body. I want to experience all of it: the good, the hard, the messy. And this is where writing has become such a lifeline for me because writing wakes me up. It helps me notice and remember things like this call with my son. Had I not been doing the recap, I might have just gotten so busy going forward to the next thing and then the next thing that I didn't have time to actually reflect on that call and how beautiful it was and how grateful I was to have that time with him. Writing helps me notice when I slip into being at the mercy of my circumstances and fall into a pity party, or when I'm waiting for life, planning and strategizing my life so much instead of living in it, participating in it. And writing helps me shine a light on what is actually real and happening. And shining the light gives you a moment of choice where you can shift your approach even ever so slightly. It might be a pause before reacting to something. It might be just a pause to question a thought that was in your head. It might be that choice to do something slightly different. It might be that choice to lead your mind instead of being dragged around by your thoughts, emotions, distractions, and circumstances. And maybe that's the reminder today that we don't have to wait for life to finally begin. It's here and now. And in small ways, you can wake yourself up to it right here and now so that you don't miss a precious moment.

The Treasure Hidden In Quiet

SPEAKER_00 5:36

I hear all the time people say that they're afraid to stop and get quiet with their own thoughts. And it saddens me and I get it. I know it can feel scary, especially if you haven't ever done that or taken the time to look at the landscape of your thinking. But at the same time, I want to remind you that there's treasure there. The scarier it is, the more treasure I believe is there. And in the quiet, in the pause, is where you hear God. It's where you can grab the reins of your life. It's where you can hear wisdom and choose something different. Because until you know the landscape of your mind and your energy and your where your motions are heading and leading you today, you can't make real change. I remember years ago, I was leading a workshop for a team and I did some private calls for the different leaders in it. And this one guy I was having a conversation and he, you know, is guiding him in some reflection. And he just said, you know, honestly, I've never stopped to look if the motions I'm making are leading to the life I want to be living. And I was stunned, but also just like that was he spoke such truth. And I think that it's so easy for us to fall into that. And this world, the way this world um projects to us, it's really makes it really easy to slip into this autopilot numbing out, going through the motions. But I know that's not what you want, friend.

Redefining Success Against The World

SPEAKER_00 7:21

A while back, I was reading my Bible and diving into um what scripture says about success. And I wrote this, I wrote down this list as I was reading. And you can go back. I talked about this on another episode called Redefined Success. And it was in February of this year. But what I found according to the Bible, success says that we're to be prepared for God's return. We're to be responsible for our own spiritual condition of our soul. We're to use well what God has entrusted to us. We're to serve others. We're to stay awake, and we're to be a good caretaker of our time and our talents and our treasure. And then I made another list of what the world tells us success is. And the world is telling us to be distracted, focus on appearances of status and title and money and more material things. Consume, consume, consume, serve yourself, stay numb, keep chasing, keep striving, um, keep overcoming, keep trying to make yourself better. And what stunned me was realizing that the lists were completely opposites. I mean, completely opposites way of living. And that makes me so curious. What if success and living awake in this life is truly different than what we've been told? And that, my friend, is something to sit with. One, one of the, you know, the one list leads to presence, the other list leads to exhaustion. The one list led to stewardship, the other led to consumption. One list led to waking up, the other keeps us asleep. I don't know about you, but I want to be mindful of not slipping into the world's definition of going through the motions and numbing out and being distracted. And friend, we are having to work extra, extra hard and be diligent for that to happen. I know you know because there's such a pull. I mean, literally, if we just talk about the phone, what an incredible distraction that is, and how many hours we spend daily and weekly that we can't get back. The pull is constant to consume more, have more things, do more, be more, achieve more, escape your life, numb yourself, wait for external things to make you feel alive. And I think more than ever, we have to call up the lies and make sure, like that participant in my workshop said, is are the motions you're making leading to the life you want to be living? My nephew, I remember my niece telling me he was saying, like, be the main character, be the main character in your life. Um, and so I think that is like an ownership piece that we have to take to really look and see if the motions you're making are leading to the life you want to be living. Because those motions in the in-between moments, they are leading and they are making an impact.

The Eight-Week Reset Invitation

SPEAKER_00 10:40

And those are the very places that if you want to create profound change in your life, that you want to be looking at. And I think that's exciting news. So you don't have to wait for everything to line up in order to feel more awake and alive inside of your own life. You can begin that today. And before you go, I want to say this too: that the work of waking up your life and changing your narrative that keeps you stuck and in the autopilot, um, learning how to lead yourself differently, it's not a one-time breakthrough. It's a practice. It's a practice of paying attention, not just to the outer world, but to your inner world. And honestly, this is why I do the work I do because years and years ago, in one of the hardest seasons of my life, someone walked beside me and helped me see the blind spots that were tripping me up, helped me find resources that helped me understand how my thoughts were fueling my life and how they were quietly sabotaging things too. And it changed everything for me. And it's still the work I do in my life today. And that's why I have an eight-week reset that I walk people through this journey of understanding their thoughts so that they can fuel your life and that you can make profound change right here where you are in the thick of things. One of my former clients, Erin, described her coaching experience like this. She said, Carla, working with you changed my life in a way I didn't even know was possible. I came into this thinking this is just how I am, and that I would learn how to better manage it. But instead, I learned those patterns were not the end of my story. While nothing in my external world changed during the eight weeks, I did. And that has changed everything. You listened so deeply, guided me, and through your writing process helped me untangle, realign, and truly live differently. I'm not walking away with just tools or information. I'm changed and I'm still living into that every day. So this is what it can look like. Um, it's an eight-week journey of understanding the landscape of your own thought life and really taking the reins of your life again. I show you where the reins are because sometimes we forget and we feel powerless. I will be right by your side when you fall back into old habits and feel like you want to shrink and disconnect or give up because that's part of the process. And friends, having this kind of mental freedom is a practice, something you come back to again and again and again. And this kind of change is really helpful to make with accountability and someone by your side who can shine light on patterns you can't always see on your own. I do this work in my life every single day. I do this work in my life and in my marriage every single day. And it's not something you arrive at once and never think about again. It's truly a way of living. So if you've been feeling the pull to make some profound change in your life and change that narrative that keeps you stuck, if you want to be more awake and alive in your life, more present and more purposeful, you are in the right place. And I can help you. And I'd love to walk through this with you. You can, if you're interested or curious, go on over to my website on the work together page, and you can sign up and book a call with me where we can just explore this. There's no obligation, but let's just have a conversation to see if this is a good next step for you. Or you can email me directly at Carla at Carlareeves.com. Okay, friend, that's all I have today. But remember, your life can feel more awake and alive right here where you are. So grab your notebook, write down what stood out to you today, and take one action on one insight you had. I'll see you next week. Hey, thanks for listening all the way to the end. Before you move on with your day, pause and capture one thought or takeaway that stood out to you. Write it down so it doesn't get lost in the noise. And if you're ready to go deeper, come join me in my free monthly class conversation and guided writing to help you see things differently and move forward with clarity. Save your spot, carlareeves.com forward slash free class.