Friday Review: TIME

Friday Review: TIME

What are your beliefs and practices relative to time? Here are a few related posts you may have missed.

“The more balls you try to juggle, the more you’re likely to drop.”

 

 

 

 

“About 99% of the time, the right time is right now.”

 

 

 

You have plenty of free time. You just need to find where it is hiding.

 

 

 

In this short life that only lasts an hour

“In this short life that only lasts an hour, how much-how-little is within our power?”

Emily Dickenson, 19th Century American Poet

Image from The Kids Should See This Blog

I often read the blog The Kids Should See This in hopes of finding fascinating items to share with my daughter and our two grandchildren. A few weeks ago, I watched a video to help visualize man’s role on earth compared to the age of the universe. Here are some things I learned:

  • Our universe is estimated to be about 13.8 billion years old.
  • Our solar system is estimated to be about 4.5 billion years old.
  • The earliest forms of life on Earth appeared 3.7 billion years ago.
  • 550,000 to 750,000 years ago was the beginning of homo sapiens lineage.
  • 100,000 to 210,000 years ago we see fossils of homo sapiens living outside of Africa.
  • 15,000 to 40,000 years ago genetics and fossils show homo sapiens became the only surviving human species.

EXERCISE:

Do a bit of math to calculate the time each generation—including our own—has to spend on our beautiful blue world. How will you use your power to make sure many more future generations can continue doing this exercise?

Check out this to scale/time video that visualizes 13.8 billion years—It’s definitely worth 10 minutes of your time!

The past is a place of reference, not a residence

“The past is a place of reference, not a residence. The past is a place of learning, not a place of living.”

—Roy T. Bennett, Late Author of The Light in the Heart

Image from Unsplash by Shantung Kulkarni

Our minds are marvelous. In a split second we can use our imagination to go anywhere and do anything.

By working at the speed of light and beyond, we can use mental worm holes and folds in spacetime to explore our limitless inner and outer worlds.

Another handy trick is our ability to go back in time or into the future whenever we wish.

Although daydreaming about the future and how our life may unfold is common, trips down memory lane seem to be even more prominent, since these roads have already been traveled.

Unfortunately, all this mental leaping can have us miss the very moments that make up these memories we hope to reflect upon down the road.

EXERCISE:

How much of your life do you spend residing in the past?

What lessons have you learned to make sure you prioritize opening the gifts of the present?

As soon as I have a deadline, I work much better

“As soon as I have a deadline, I work much better. Time unbounded is hard to handle.”

May Sarton, pen name of Eleanore Marie Sarton, 20th century novelist, poet, memoirist

Image from Unsplash by Markus Winkler

To what degree do you experience deadlines in your personal and professional lives?

How do time constraints impact your engagement and performance?

Where do they help you step up your game, or act as negative stressors that crush your spirit?

EXERCISE:

How does having unbounded time impact your life?

Where is the sweet spot between eustress and distress as it relates to setting deadlines for yourself?

 

You’re spending time to save money when you should be spending money to save time

“You’re spending time to save money when you should be spending money to save time.”

Naval Ravikant, Indian-American entrepreneur and investor

Image from Unsplash by Daniel Watson

When I was eleven, I started my first business.

My dad loaned me $75 to buy a Sears Craftsman lawn mower, and I got busy knocking on all the neighborhood doors.

Prior to my gas-powered efforts, I used one of those rotary mowers that would always get clogged with grass if it was too long or wet. After one multi-hour effort on a neighbor’s neglected lawn with only three dollars to show for it, my rotary mower was history.

Where in your life have you and do you trade your time for money?

Where over the years have your learned to use your money to more efficiently and effectively allocate your time?

EXERCISE:

Where and in what ways have you learned that time is the coin of life? In what ways can you spend and invest it more wisely? How can you use your money and other resources to get far more bang for your bucks?

If you become restless, speed up. If you become winded, slow down

“If you become restless, speed up. If you become winded, slow down.”

Robert Pirsig, late American writer and philosopher

Image from Unsplash by Milan Fakurian

What is the current pace of your life?

To what degree are you running the rat race or crawling along at a snail’s pace?

Perhaps the tempo of your world is just right — you’ve found your groove and there is not much more to do other than put things on cruise control.

If you are on an entrance or exit ramp of life you know when it’s time to hit the gas or pump the brakes.

EXERCISE:

Where are you restless and need to speed things up?

Where are you out of breath and need to slow things down?

What is the optimal speed for you at this point in your life?

When is it time to let go or give up so that you can begin something new

When is it time to let go or give up so that you can begin something new?

—Calm App Reflection

Image from Amazon

Where do you currently feel stalled or stuck in your life? How are you wrestling with the sunk cost of time, effort, and resources where your pivoting is just not paying off? How can you tell when it’s time to quit and when to stick things out?

An approach that has served me over the years is the HHG method. This acronym stands for Head, Heart, and Gut.

In most cases, when I evaluate my endeavors through these three filters, I can move on or stay the course with greater confidence.

EXERCISE:

Try the HHG method for yourself and let me know what you discover. I also recommend Seth Godin’s classic book “The Dip” as a resource to explore in times of potential transition.

Don’t be fooled by the calendar

“Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One person gets only a week’s value out of a year while another gets a full year’s value out of a week.”

—Charles Richards, Author of The Psychology of Wealth

Barry’s Watch

I own a Warner Brothers watch given to me by my wife over 20 years ago.

It shows Sylvester the Cat using a toothpick with Tweety Bird inside still very much alive.

What makes this watch extra special is that it has a small button on the side that illuminates the face in the dark or when the light is low. I refer to it as my “Lighten up” watch, to remind me to not be so serious and engage in life with a more playful spirit.

This watch has been sitting in a drawer and has not been worn since the beginning of the pandemic.

Fortunately, I seem to have developed an internal light that illuminates my life and lets me know what’s truly important.

EXERCISE:

What are your thoughts about today’s quote?

What is your current relationship with time?

What do you consider your wisest investments of this precious resource?

Please reply to this post if your care to share your perspective.

Mortality makes it impossible to ignore the absurdity of living solely for the future

“Mortality makes it impossible to ignore the absurdity of living solely for the future.”

Oliver Burkeman, British journalist and writer

image from Amazon

What are your favorite things to do?

Where are your most enjoyable places to travel?

Examine the highlight reel of your life so far to pick out your most wonderful experiences.

How much time is left on your biological clock?

If 4000 weeks—which amounts to about 80 years—is all that we get, how much time remains?

How many of us have a someday list or bucket list for things we hope to do or experience in the future? The challenge we often ignore is just how finite the sands of time truly are.

What happens when we wake up one morning and it hits us that we can’t have or do it all?

EXERCISE:

Hope is not an optimal strategy for living, and someday is not a day of the week.

How then can you live more fully in each moment and avoid the absurdity of living for the future?

Please check out Burkeman’s book Four Thousand Weeks—Time Management for Mortals for some wonderful coaching on this subject.

We can revisit the past, be in the present, and even venture into the future

We can revisit the past, be in the present, and even venture into the future with our miraculous minds.

—Calm App Reflection

James Webb Telescope Image from NASA.com

The James Webb telescope is a miraculous piece of technology that cost ten billion dollars and took over 25 years to create. It is 100 times more powerful than the Hubble telescope, which has transformed our knowledge and understanding of the universe for decades.

These devices use various frequencies of light to examine the past, based on the distance of diverse objects. With the finite speed of light being 186,000 miles per second, we can view the moon 1.3 seconds ago, our sun 8 minutes ago, and even distant galaxies over 13.5 billion years ago. With our awareness of our ever expanding and accelerating universe, we can also use computer simulations to look way into the future.

EXERCISE:

What value have you gained through lessons from the past?

What moments are you currently experiencing that you don’t want to miss?

What potential opportunities do you see for yourself and others as the future unfolds?