Last week, California Highway Patrol (CHiPs) Officers stopped a Tesla Model S car that was being driven by a driver who was sound asleep. According to the police report, after following the sedan for about seven miles and unsuccessfully getting the driver to respond to their lights and sirens, the officers figured that the Tesla's Autopilot Driver Assist System had been engaged. They pulled in front of the car to get it to slow down and safely come to a complete stop in the middle of the highway. Not surprisingly, the officers found the driver asleep and drunk. This whole episode gave a new (literal) meaning to the idiom “asleep at the wheel”.
The phrase was originally intended to mean “failing to attend to one's responsibilities or duties; not doing or paying attention to that which is important or for which one is responsible.”
Can you recall a time when you or someone you love was “asleep at the wheel”?
We have now embarked on what many consider to be the ‘busiest time of the year.’ It is easy to get so consumed with the to-do lists of the season that we end up failing to take care of other responsibilities in our lives. I know many people (my own family included) who end up sick on Christmas and/or New Year’s. It is completely understandable because we all run ourselves ragged to get “it” all done. We are so busy shopping, wrapping, card-writing, decorating and cooking for others that we may forget to properly take care of ourselves. All of a sudden we are sleeping less, stressing more, not taking our daily vitamins, drinking less water and eating a bunch of junk food. This was my routine for so many years that it was my own version of being on auto-pilot. I repeated the same unhealthy routine year after year, as if there were instructions telling me to do so - similar to SHAMPOO-RINSE-REPEAT.
A few years ago, I made the life-changing decision to change my wicked ways...
The decorating doesn’t all have to be done in one day. Our holiday greeting card doesn’t have to be the first one that our family and friends receive. My family will be just as happy eating one or two types of their favorite Christmas cookies instead of 12 different ones. One or two bigger gifts per person is just as lovely a gift as 4 or 5 smaller ones. A gift-wrapping session can be just as productive while watching Hallmark Holiday Movies (it’s also an instant stress-reducer).
The epiphany that I had about how to handle the holidays was as big as the one that caused the Grinch’s heart to grow “three sizes that day”. Everything still gets done each year without frazzled nerves, head colds, and stomachs tied in knots.
There is no reason to be “asleep at the wheel” when it comes to making our health and well being a top priority. We can be of no good to others if we are run-down, overwhelmed, sick and exhausted. Like the driver of the Tesla in California, you too may be running on auto-pilot at an unsafe speed of 70 miles per hour. Since there are no CHiPs officers who are going to suddenly and magically appear to help slow you down, you need to make sure you do it yourself.
The best gift you may get this season is the one of you enjoying the holidays to the fullest.