Can We Really Control Our Lives?
July 14, 2008 | General
As you can tell from my last proper blog, there have been a few situations and conversations recently that have really made me think about the massive influence that time has over our lives.
With my children’s summer holiday’s only a week away, I was feeling nostalgic about how my school summer holidays seemed to last forever when I was a kid, and now - how quickly they arrive after Christmas!!
Why does time go so much faster as you get into your 30’s and 40’s?
I just can’t believe it. And, does it go even quicker as you get into your 50’s and 60’s? I suppose the answer to that would depend on what you are doing with your life.
Over the weekend, some friends that had emigrated to Australia two years ago, returned for a holiday - the first time that they have done so since they left. When their two boys arrived in our hallway, instantly it was like they had never been away. Yes they looked a little older but as they disappeared up to our son’s bedroom, it seemed impossible that two years had passed by since we saw them last.
How could it have gone by so quickly and why has so little appear to have changed/happened in that time?
Also I left my job over a year ago now and it doesn’t seem two minutes since I was tied to a chair, being covered in aerosol cream and then going out to find my car completely wrapped in black shrink wrap. That was the leaving ceremony by the way, not a part of my everyday job!
As I think about it, I wonder if it is because we have so many more first time, momentous experiences when we are younger. Because everything is new and an adventure our lives are more fulfilled and seem longer. Even as an adult the more activities you fit into a day, the longer it appears to be.
My Sunday’s for example can go a choice of two ways - both equally enjoyable I hasten to add.
Firstly I can lie in bed until 10am, get up have a cup of coffee and some toast while watching yesterday’s football analysis on Sky, wander down to pick up the newspaper and then laze out on the sofa and read through it until dinner time and Top Gear.
Or I can get up at 7.30am meet some friends an hour later for a 2-3 hour, 30 mile cycle ride, dash home to get a quick shower before watching my son play football, get home have a bite to eat before doing a few things around the house and maybe having a quick tea time drink at my local before dinner time and Top Gear.
Both equally enjoyable in their own way but I feel that I have achieved a hell of a lot more in option two. It may seem completely paradoxical but I find that time lasts longer the more that you do.
My final thoughts came out of a conversation that I had with a friend a few weeks ago and the subject has the ability to be either very motivating or very demoralising depending on your outlook on life.
Firstly, I don’t know about you, but most of my weeks just FLY by at the moment. One minute it is Monday morning and the next it is the weekend again - all in the blink of an eye. I have just turned 43 and if I am lucky enough to live to an average life expectancy, then I have probably got another 35 -37 years left.
If you work that out in weeks, which I did on a calculator, that is under 2000 weeks left. I don’t know about you, but actually 2000 doesn’t seem a lot when I consider how quickly that they are going by at the moment.
To me that really was a call to action to do something about the rate at which my life just seems to be rushing by.
But is there anything that we can do to slow down the acceleration of time or do we just have to accept it?
Well I think that there is and I believe that we need to learn from the approach to life that we had when we were children. If we believe that our time went more slowly then because we were learning more and experiencing so much more for the first time, then it is perfectly reasonable that this will work at any age in our lives.
The examples of my two Sunday scenarios prove this for me and I am sure that we all have similar experiences.
Personally I have already taken a massive step forward by leaving my unfulfilling job. The weeks that fly by are the ones in which I feel that I am making slow progress in the new skills that I am learning to develop my home business. But when I make a breakthrough and a giant leap forward, then I know that I am one step closer to achieving the quality of lifestyle that I plan for myself.
I believe that the key to controlling time comes with the making of the decision to seize control of your life. Once that you realise that almost anything is possible in your life then you can develop a plan of action to achieve anything you want to achieve.
YOU have to make the decision that YOU are going to control time and that you no longer going to let time control you.
One Response to “Can We Really Control Our Lives?”
‘Energy not time is our most precious resource’ - Peter drucker (I think!)
By Mike Kerfoot on Aug 5, 2008