Controlling time

There aren’t many clichés or views of time moving too fast or too slowly that you haven’t heard of by now, but…

What to do about it?

If you buy that it moves faster as you are older and look back , and you can seemingly slow it down through attitudes of gratitude, not hurrying, setting sail on a purpose or mission, exercising, meditating, etc., and that works and may very well help a lot with your joy and fulfillment. Go for it for as long as you can !

One big question is , what to do about it when it seems to move so slowly in our impatient, limited attention spans of our youth?

Whether it’s size ,being old enough to drive ,go on the roller coaster ,advance your career, dating, school, new house, independence, family ; a few things might come to mind which one can apply consciously or not. Following might be some habits that make you feel a bit more in control and in the drivers seat as time marches on :

1. If you don’t have natural examples of those who have taken steps in their life which you’d like to emulate …. Find them ! Again, family, friends, teacher, coaches, read biographies, separate good examples from not so good.
   

2. Get a destination/goal of some magnitude in your sites and set out. Step-by-step, keep that patience in check to some extent and figure out when to plow through obstacles and naysayers or when to maneuver, strategically in stealth mode but with conviction.
   

3. Celebrate baby steps, you’re making headway and anticipate another fork in the road.
   

4. When you reach a fork in the road ,find or are presented with an opportunity ,evaluate with deliberation and process.
   

5. Look at the risk reward versus your target and make a decision. Damn the torpedoes , full speed ahead! John Paul Jones .
   

6. Adopt and embrace it or adapt if it makes sense for you at some point.
   

7. You don’t always know this for sure , but many people don’t get to this step seven. They derail, get distracted, lose sight of , and look for the shortcut and stall out.
   

8. You are here, you’ve made progress …. maybe a year has gone by , maybe 10, but you are advancing. You’re doing great.

I’ll leave you with this , and remind you of having shared this in the past from CS Lewis:

“Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different.”

Just like moving from the gas pedal to the brake pedal in the car , balance patience with energetic, conscious habits, and opportunities to adapt, evaluate , decide and put into practice and freshen those habits and then appreciate you are separating from the pack and making progress.

Good luck ; time is on your side !