Here's something that makes me chuckle, even now – a keyboard shortcut I set up, ages ago.
Did you know, you can create them for phrases you use regularly? Like email addresses you're always typing, your physical address, or even long strings of words you get sick of typing out over and over again?
For instance, if I type ‘dddr’ it automatically converts that to ‘Daily Reminders’ with the capital letters and everything - it's a huge time saver!
→ On iOS it’s Settings > General > Keyboard > Text replacement.
→ On my Android phone it's Settings > General management > Samsung Keyboard Settings > Text shortcuts.
It’s a doddle to set up and you can use them to correct your regular typos, create entire paragraphs of text from just a couple of keystrokes… anything you like really.
It’s like magic!
⌨️🧙♂️✨
And it may not surprise you to learn that, given my all-encompassing obsession with their music, and the fact I’m a bit of a lazy bastard, I’ve got a keyboard shortcut set up, whereby when I type “DM” it expands to say “Depeche Mode.”
🌹🖤😎🤟🏻
Which is fine, when I’m talking about the band (which happens a lot, especially on Twitter), but potentially disastrous when I’m having serious business conversations online and asking people to “Send me a DM” (i.e. Direct Message) on whatever social media platform we share. I mean, imagine!!!
😬🙊
It made me think about how often we respond to situations as if there were a keyboard shortcut happening in the background. “That's just how I am,” we say, e.g.:
- Someone says this to me ⌨️🧙♂️✨ I’m triggered and always respond like this
- That same situation arises ⌨️🧙♂️✨ This is how I always feel and behave
- This thought pops into my head ⌨️🧙♂️✨ I always end up doing that thing
The fact that we have these patterns of response isn’t a problem (my word though, have we made it into one?!), it’s just the conditioned mind, doing what it does; churning the same old data and spitting out the same old results.
What’s really helpful, is to see that this is all that's going on and that it's just one teeny tiny part of the human experience.
Things can (and do) change, whatever the pattern, and however ingrained it is. Because underneath all that conditioning—all those automated mind-responses, running in the background—is something that remains un-programmed. Something that's un-programmable.
It's who-you-really-are, it's fresh and new in each moment that arises, and it's the source of change.
And that really is like magic!
⌨️🧙♂️✨
Unlike my “DM” keyboard shortcut, that I have to remain ever-vigilant about accidentally triggering, when communicating with people.
(Of course that one time I don’t notice, we’ll discover that whoever I'm inviting to send me a “DM” is a massive fan too, and it will be the start of something beautiful 🌹🖤😂)
💟
Giles
p.s. Helping people to change these patterns is what I do. So if you’re fed up of yours and they’re making your life a misery, then for pity sake, reach out for help - you don’t have to suffer in silence 💝
Know that it's time for significant life change? Had enough of reading and now ready to sort the problem out once and for all, with 1:1 support?
I help you get the change you need, in a way that's just right for you.
Alternatively, you could just send me a Depeche Mode 😉