The hidden CEO running my life and probably yours too!

Walking into the new year, I ran headfirst into a bold and mildly annoying realization:

I am not as “in charge” of daily life as I like to think I am.

It’s January. New year, new planner, new supplements and new commitments to “do better.”

And yet… I still felt a little tired, reactive and overthinking more than I’d like. I even noticed a few familiar patterns I swore I left behind in ’25, like replaying conversations in my head long after they’re over.

So let me say this clearly (and kindly): This isn’t a discipline problem.

Enter: the subconscious mind

I realized my inner CEO—the one working behind the scenes—is incredibly efficient. So efficient, in fact, that it makes most of my decisions while politely letting me believe I’m 100% calling the shots like a boss. Eeeek.

Here’s the moment that stopped me in my tracks:

Modern research suggests that up to 95% of our habits, reactions, tone, assumptions, and stress responses are auto-piloted by the unconscious mind. Meanwhile, our conscious mind mostly shows up to write the meeting recap and take credit for what's already been decided.

Quick translation?

You and I move through everyday life basically“under the influence" and without consent.

Why this matters now more than ever

Your subconscious mind was designed for survival—not Slack notifications, endless email threads, performance dashboards, or 24/7 access to everyone else’s opinions (hello, socials).

It learns through repetition, emotion, and attention. Which means:

• The constant drip of news and social feeds is shaping it

• Your inbox is conditioning it

• Your ever-growing calendar is training it

No intention required.

So while many of us are reaching for buzzwords like better focus, better boundaries, or better habits, we’re often overlooking the powerful system that’s already running most of the show.

Here’s the leadership insight hiding in plain sight:

Our path to better can't be engineered through willpower or productivity hacks. Our inner CEO is being called to greater capacity and its effectiveness can be developed through practice.

A simple practice to carry with you

Your subconscious isn’t the enemy. It's more like your auto-filling AI, storing memories and using them to answer quickly on your behalf.

While it's part of the human operating system, we can better support it by intentionally taking notice of moments when we slide into reactivitity, overthinking, tigtening, withdrawing etc. and using it as a cue to pause and name:

“Something familiar just took over.”

That small moment of awareness to is often enough to interrupt the loop. Not perfectly or permanently, but enough to create space for better choices one experience at a time.

We've got this!