Expert Feature – Google’s Self-Driving Car Project and Lessons on Living Your Life on Auto-Pilot
An article that appeared on TheGuardian.com back on May 9, 2014 revealed something surprising that Google has been up to.
The article called “Google’s self-driving car: How does it work and when can we drive one?“ by Samuel Gibbs revealed that Google has quietly become the first company to build a car with no steering wheel, accelerator, or even a brake pedal.
Gibbs says, “It is the first truly driverless electric car prototype and it’s built by Google to test the next stage of its five-year-old self-driving car project. It looks like a cross between a Smart car and a Nissan Micra, with two seats and room enough for a small amount of luggage.”
What does it do?
“It ferries two people from one place to another without any user interaction. The car is summoned by a smartphone for pick up at the user’s location with the destination set. Again, there is no steering wheel or manual control, simply a start button and a big red emergency stop button. In front of the passengers there is a small screen showing the weather, the current speed and a small countdown animation to launch.
“Once the journey is done, the small screen displays a message to remind you to take your personal belongings – reinforcing that this is not aiming to be a substitute for your personal car at the moment, but more as a replacement for the taxi without the human driver.”
Can you believe that we could soon really have a car that could take you to your location on auto-pilot?
I really can’t believe it.
It just seems too far-fetched, and even sort of scary, to trust a car to automatically drive us somewhere. I say that, but I am sure people said the same thing about the first car, the first airplane, etc. And I know that one day it will probably become a normal, every day thing to have cars driving around on auto-pilot.
Your Life on Auto-Pilot
But forget about cars that drive on auto-pilot for second. Think about this…
Wouldn’t it be cool if you could do the same thing with your life – if you could somehow just set a couple settings and you’d end up at a certain destination in life, all on auto-pilot?
(I don’t mean a literal destination, but “where” you want your life to be in a figurative sense.)
Well, I’ve been thinking about it and the truth is that you already can. That is what you do whenever you establish a habit in your life.
You create something that happens on auto-pilot, that you don’t even really have to think about anymore, and it will eventually influence where your life ends up.
As John Dryden once said, “We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.”
Habits really do set our lives on auto-pilot, so that we go through life like a Google self-driving car. We set them and then they guide and influence our lives.
If we set good habits, then they guide in a good direction, but if we allow bad habits to be built into our lives, then they guide us in a bad direction.
How We Got Ourselves in This Mess
In an article in ParentLife Magazine it told of a teacher who wanted to show her pupils the power of habits and how they are formed through repeated actions or thoughts.
She took a roll of thread and wrapped it one time around a student’s wrists when placed together. Then she said, “That represents your doing something one time. Can you break the thread?” The student easily did so.
Then she wrapped the thread around his wrists, two, three, four, five or more times. The effort to break the thread became more and more difficult until finally the child was unable to free his hands at all.
Then she said, “That is what happens when acts are repeated until they become habits.”
Change Your Habits, Change Your Results
If you really want 2015 to be a different year for you, personally, or your business, then you must change your habits.
If you’re going to break them, then are three things that you’re going to need to do:
- Discover what habits are holding us back
You might already know some of them. If not, think about the results you’re currently experiencing and think about what habits in your life might be causing them. Pick 1-2 of them to break. - Ask others for help
The vast majority of people who have broken habits that have trapped them did it with the help and accountability of others. That means that if you really want to break an old habit, or make a new one, you’re going to need others. So be humble and courageous enough to ask a friend to help you break these 1-2 habits. - Commit to action.
Repetitive action is the way you made those bad habits. That means that it’s going to take repetitive INACTION to break those bad habits. The key is to start small and be consistent.
The famous American psychologist William James said something that we need to keep in mind. He said, “We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone. Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its never so little scar.”
It’s not going to be easy, but it will be worth it.
And the great news is that once you break these bad habits, and replace them with good habits, you will be surprised at the new, better, and different destination that your life will automatically be taken to this year.
Photo by roland
Related article
- “Habits of the World’s Wealthiest People” (INFOGRAPHIC) (baybusinesshelp.com)
