Demythologizing Automatic
Talk about words that are misused! Try this one - “Automatic.” We hear it used in golf like potato chips. (You can't “eat” just one). It is so overworked and misunderstood that it is one of several entrances to the game's several “garden paths.”
Those who have to think about what they are doing while they do it cannot possibly be “on automatic.” That's like trying to swim in a pool with no water. Can't be done. Automatic is marked by NOT thinking about what is being done while doing it. (Not my idle opinion – but a principle as strong as Newton's law of gravity).
Don't go away, because there is another vital issue here. The mind is never still – fact. When you consciously think you are not thinking, you have overlooked 97% (estimated) of the total, comprehensive thinking process which is non conscious, or unconscious or subconscious (take your choice of the descriptors).
It is with some “sorrow” that I report there is nothing any of us can do about that configuration other than make a conscious choice to accept it and learn to manage it.
If you want to be on automatic, better learn the rules and how to follow them to success. Cognitive guesswork or will power won't cut it.
Be assured your mind is always working, and it you don't make a choice, the unconscious will do it for you and default to whatever IT chooses, on its own terms. Your ONLY alternative is to cut into that default. That is done by pre-determination of what you wish to do, followed by “blocking” the default thinking using your own conscious thought process. We think we do that by using “swing keys.” However, the problem there is that the mind and the body are on two entirely different time schedules. The mind works much faster than the body. That forces another human “fact” into play. When the body is asked to go with the speed of the mind, it will do one of two things. It will try to speed up, (catch up), or it will balk in resistance. Either of those has much more chance of producing an errant action than anything that is workable.
Those are the realities that brought “clear keys” into being. The tools are available. It is not necessary to be at the mercy of this game. BTW, being on “automatic” and being “in the zone” are essentially the same. You cannot be in the zone without automatic and if you are in the zone you have reached automatic. Either way you speak of it, it is essential to learning and playing this game.
So the myth of “automatic” is all wrapped up in the pretext.
Talk about words that are misused! Try this one - “Automatic.” We hear it used in golf like potato chips. (You can't “eat” just one). It is so overworked and misunderstood that it is one of several entrances to the game's several “garden paths.”
Those who have to think about what they are doing while they do it cannot possibly be “on automatic.” That's like trying to swim in a pool with no water. Can't be done. Automatic is marked by NOT thinking about what is being done while doing it. (Not my idle opinion – but a principle as strong as Newton's law of gravity).
Don't go away, because there is another vital issue here. The mind is never still – fact. When you consciously think you are not thinking, you have overlooked 97% (estimated) of the total, comprehensive thinking process which is non conscious, or unconscious or subconscious (take your choice of the descriptors).
It is with some “sorrow” that I report there is nothing any of us can do about that configuration other than make a conscious choice to accept it and learn to manage it.
If you want to be on automatic, better learn the rules and how to follow them to success. Cognitive guesswork or will power won't cut it.
Be assured your mind is always working, and it you don't make a choice, the unconscious will do it for you and default to whatever IT chooses, on its own terms. Your ONLY alternative is to cut into that default. That is done by pre-determination of what you wish to do, followed by “blocking” the default thinking using your own conscious thought process. We think we do that by using “swing keys.” However, the problem there is that the mind and the body are on two entirely different time schedules. The mind works much faster than the body. That forces another human “fact” into play. When the body is asked to go with the speed of the mind, it will do one of two things. It will try to speed up, (catch up), or it will balk in resistance. Either of those has much more chance of producing an errant action than anything that is workable.
Those are the realities that brought “clear keys” into being. The tools are available. It is not necessary to be at the mercy of this game. BTW, being on “automatic” and being “in the zone” are essentially the same. You cannot be in the zone without automatic and if you are in the zone you have reached automatic. Either way you speak of it, it is essential to learning and playing this game.
So the myth of “automatic” is all wrapped up in the pretext.
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