Autopilot

There is a point in the documentary where they are having Alex do a voiceover talking through the different pitches on El Capitan. When he mentions the crux which is the hardest part of the climb he says the following, "Pull hard, trust feet, TRUST!!. Autopilot." Let's talk.Have you ever seen the cartoon drawing where a podium stand has three place-winners standing on it and below the podium is has words like, practice, hard work, training, long nights, etc... This is something I thought of as I watch the documentary (for the tenth time). Coming from a sports background I can somewhat relate to what he is talking about and this cartoon exemplifies that. I want you to think of something in your life that you have studied so much, trained so hard for, that you can switch into autopilot. In wrestling I often found myself in these situations. I had learned how to defend a multitude of different attacks and had trained them so repeatedly that I no longer had to think about defending them. When my opponent would shoot I could worry about my re-attack rather than defending him as my body had the natural reaction to defend. I went into autopilot. I can imagine that Alex has an Autopilot mode not only a higher level of concentration, but with a much higher risk.He has to ride the fine line of not falling prey to being too much in Autopilot, he has to have some edge to his climbing. He talks about it in his Joe Rogan interview, in that he has to be climbing in a 4-7 level of difficulty for his skillset so he isn't so relaxed that he slips and falls. Its crazy to think that people put in so much time and effort into one area of life that allows them to have an autopilot button. It is incredible to see in the sports world that allows people to be in a state of flow that they can continually perform at a high level. I also saw this word from a different perspective, the perspective of life.How many people do you know (including yourself) that are currently in Autopilot? What I mean is this, everyday you're going to the same job, to have the same conversations, with the same people, about the same things, to have the same beer, at the same bar, and so on... Everyday, every week, every month is set on repeat. You stray away from challenges, you stray away from meeting new people, or breaking your routine. You have effectively switched your life into Autopilot.Is your life giving you fulfillment? Are you happy with where you're at? What is next for you? Is autopilot working for you? How do you change it? Do you want to look back on your life and realize you were in autopilot? Alex has another part of the film where he is talking about his girlfriend, and how she looks at life. He says she thinks the point of life is to be happy and be with people that make you feel fulfilled, for him it's about performance. He then says this, "anybody can be happy and cozy, nothing good comes from being happy and cozy. Nobody achieves anything great because they're happy and cozy." While having the things in our life that bring us comfort and joy are not bad, I have to agree with Alex on this one. It is something we need more of in our lives. Something we need to get us out of autopilot and something to push our limits. We NEED uncomfortability.On Purpose,Matt"To be outstanding, you need to be comfortable being uncomfortable."