Truth #5: Automation Without Intention Breeds Amnesia
TL;DR: Don’t outsource what you haven’t yet owned.
This one is built on the quiet erosion of your own capacity to think and know for yourself. Small daily handoffs of power, awareness, presence…until suddenly, you’ve forgotten how to access certain parts of yourself without an app, a system, or a screen. Even your ability to reflect on your own lived experiences starts to require the crutch of something external.
Ironically, I started this very post with a question to Chatty G about “what things do you notice me outsourcing to you….oh, wait.” It was this meta-moment of outsourcing my reflection before sitting with it to actually think through. On the surface, there’s nothing wrong with this; but on a deeper level, the habitualization of jumping over to ChatGPT to kick off something that should start in your gut, your heart, and/or your mind is going to slowly start to erode your ability to lead from those places.
Why does this matter? Because it’s one of the things that makes us human. Maybe the thing. Our capacity to let our hearts work in conjunction with our minds. To feel something deeply and then alchemize it into insight, into creation, into a new way of being. That’s not something you want to lose because you outsource your capacity to do it to a machine that doesn’t have any of the lived experiences that gave you this exact capacity.
AI can reflect, sort, and summarize. But it cannot initiate meaning. That’s your job. Don’t outsource what’s still sacred before it’s even been touched by your own awareness.
Things to consider:
Where in your daily life are you handing something over before you've truly felt into it?
What’s a recent task or decision you “automated” that, in hindsight, might’ve deserved more of your full presence?
Are there parts of your inner world (your creativity, your reflection, your intuition) that you’ve started relying on external tools to access?
What would it look like to slow down before automating?
Is there something you’ve been outsourcing that’s actually still sacred?