I bought a clip-on macro lens for my phone camera. I am thrilled about it. Except, a few days ago when I tried to click, the phone automatically kept zooming on something else, I tried to focus and it just wouldn’t. It was “programmed”. I got frustrated.
So I moved the settings from Automatic to Manual.
This made me wonder, Sometimes, when things fall into an automatic ‘pattern’, and if the pattern is not working for you, It’s time for Manual Override. You choose. Not the machine.
A manual override -MO- is a mechanism where control is taken from an automated system and given to the user. Some manual overrides can be used to veto an automated system’s judgment when the system is in error. And system also err.
It is not just some whimsical fancy, it has, I found out, some very real world tangible benefits.
A case study: Printers ink level detection: In one case, a researcher found that when he overrode the system, up to 38% more pages could be printed at good quality by the printer than the automated system would have allowed.
We, are also a system, a machine of so many trillions of parts, and things going on inside, that we really have no idea about. And It is easy and conceivable for this system to get overloaded and malfunction at times.
We also need a Manual Override.
We have ended up becoming the sum total of habits and beliefs, some of which no longer serve us. But we serve it. It is also true for some people in our lives, we see that some ‘patterns’ are running their lives. It is easier to notice it in someone else ofcourse. And every now and then we need to switch to Manual Override.
It’s kind of when you say Enough!! I will take it from here. Even to yourself.
We hand over our controls to the part which is Aware.
The famous Salman khan dialogue, suddenly seems meaningful. Maine ek baat thaan li toh me apne aap ki bhi nahi sunta. Once I have decided, then I don’t listen – even to me.
MO is not about discipline – It’s a kind of ‘Hack’, when we fall asleep to our own patterns, and are in a “I KNOW..but I just cannot help it -mode”
About eating, working, health, relationship, perceiving the way the world is, walking past something that disturbs us – we are often on auto pilot.
I have had to use this very often. Sometimes, my own habits and patterns of thinking and belief about myself stop me from doing the things I want to, or I need to. I have to then “Hack” into my own system. This also obviously means, we need to become curious and learn about our own internal system. I am like this only, is a convenient and even lazy way of operating. because as we know, knowing ourselves is hard work. BUT we are not hard wired. We are made of particle AND waves. we are more malleable than we imagine or give ourselves credit for. So many things we have done that we did not expect from ourselves before that. It is convenient to continue on Auto, because it takes away the pressure of the choice and then the responsibility of the outcome. Therefore, this is how we often deal with the anxiety of the unknown. A Known ghost is better.
But at what cost I wonder.
Manual override works by changing or breaking a habit. By forcing a “Different deliberate” response or action. This time window of awareness is often very short and narrow, which is why it feels like an emergency, and so before it closes we have to hit the button. And handover to something else. This is where “Practices” come into play.
This 100 days experiment is one such hack of Manual Override. I know I get into these “writing spurts” or poetry or painting etc. and then don’t stick to it, because my feeling/mood takes over. So then I had to create100 days container, with specific settings and then throw in the MO with ‘announcing the 100 days publicly. Now I have taken away the choice of the system to just flow. And directed that flow to this container.
The other instance when a Manual Override is very useful, is when I am in an emotional Hijack, and anything I say or do, can and is held against me. And I cannot hold the pain or grief back, I shift the gear into MO. I create, paint or photograph or go for a long run. That way my soul gets a way to release the emotions and transmute it into something, sometimes beautiful things.
An MO – is what helps in overcoming inertia, fear or laziness. Which is the body’s or minds version of “automatic”.
Generally speaking an MO is coloured RED, because it is supposed to be used only in an emergency. My point is, if we resort to Manual Override, by design we may not also need to create Emergency inorder to listen to our gut and act. Sometimes, It also works if you hand over the Manual override to someone else, temporarily.
Perhaps, life sometimes, is a series of experiences of tolerating the consequences of being yourself. Of who we have ended up becoming. Perhaps it’s time we took back controls, every now and then. Sometimes to simply see if we still can.
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