How Can We Turn Off Autopilot?

Awareness

Pay Attention to What You’re Doing and Why

We always need to remember that we’re signing up for the life we’re leading. Where you can, sign up for what is truly meaningful.

Look to uncover the significance of any activity you participate in:

Remember that all around you is the majesty of nature and the mystery of humanity.
Be conscious that you have the power to control yourself in all areas of life.
Treat tough times as good opportunities to advance yourself.

Be in the Present Moment

As Marcus Aurelius says in the Meditations:

Everywhere and at all times, it is up to you to rejoice piously at what is occurring at the present moment, to conduct yourself with justice towards the people who are present here and now, and to apply rules of discernment to your present representations, so that nothing slips in that is not objective.

Laugh When Things Go ‘Wrong’ and When Things Go ‘Right’

Don’t be hurt or offended when people act poorly, or upset when things don’t go your way. Instead, chuckle at the discrepancy between our human ideas and how reality plays out. For that matter, chuckle when things do — miracle of miracles — go your way.

Laughter is a good way of transcending our dependencies.

The Deepest Human Life: An Introduction to Philosophy for Everyone
Scott Samuelson

Winner of the 2015 Hiett Prize in the Humanities

The book is currently being translated into Chinese and Portuguese.

Scott Samuelson

. Scott Samuelson website
. Why I Teach Plato to Plumbers (article in The Atlantic)

Scott Samuelson has a PhD in Philosophy from Emory University. He lives in Iowa City, Iowa, where he teaches philosophy at Kirkwood Community College (since 2000).

Samuelson is a volunteer teacher at Oakdale Prison, Iowa. He’s also a movie reviewer, television host, and sous chef at a French restaurant. He has two children.

Books Scott Samuelson has written:

How Philosophy Can Save Your Life – TEDx Talk – Scott Samuelson