As I am sitting here, the clock is quickly beginning to move well past my bed time. It is a little after 11:30 PM on Friday night, and my mind keeps going to the thought that tomorrow is the start of the big Labor Day weekend. I have always enjoyed Labor Day but I must admit that I am also always a little sad to see it arrive because it marks the unofficial end of summer. Now, in a way, that doesn’t really mean much since I am already back in school and to be honest, the kids here in town have been back for a month already, but it still makes me sad to know that fall is almost here, and then winter will be just around the corner.
In one of my classes last week, the professor observed that time seems to travel much more quickly as we get older. His theory was that when you are 5 years old, one year equals 20% of your life. With that perspective one year would seem like a very long time, but when you are 50 years old, one year only equals 1/50th of your life and so consequently time seems to go much more quickly.
Well, that may be a good theory, and it may even be accurate, but I also have a theory about why time goes by so quickly as we get older that I would like to share with you. Let me try to explain it.
When you are young, you always have something exciting to look forward to. You look forward to birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, playing outside, going on dates, the basketball game on Friday night… When you are young you are constantly in a state of anticipation. Well, my experience seems to indicate that when I am looking forward to something with anticipation, it just never seems to get here. I think they even made up a saying about a watched pot never boils.
Now let’s look at the average adult life. How many things do we really look forward to with great anticipation? Not too many, right? Even the Holidays come with a great deal of work, planning, stress or preparations that need to be attended to. Now lets take it a step further, How many things do you look ahead to with a certain amount of fear, dread, or, at the very least, with a certain degree of anxiety? I was listening to a country song the other day where the singer was complaining that there was “too much month at the end of the money.” Well, I for one can sure sympathize with that, and I think that most of the people I know find themselves in that situation.
So, when you are looking ahead with anxiety to the end of the month or the next holiday, or the evaluation at work next week, of course then, time seems to just fly by. My theory then is that when we look ahead with excitement, time goes by more slowly, when we look forward with anxiety, time seems to go more quickly.
The bottom line is that as you begin this Holiday weekend, you should plan as many activities that you love to do as possible. Plan time with your family, put it on the calendar and see to it that it happens, and in making sure that you are looking forward with joy, you will in reality be extending your life!
In one of my classes last week, the professor observed that time seems to travel much more quickly as we get older. His theory was that when you are 5 years old, one year equals 20% of your life. With that perspective one year would seem like a very long time, but when you are 50 years old, one year only equals 1/50th of your life and so consequently time seems to go much more quickly.
Well, that may be a good theory, and it may even be accurate, but I also have a theory about why time goes by so quickly as we get older that I would like to share with you. Let me try to explain it.
When you are young, you always have something exciting to look forward to. You look forward to birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, playing outside, going on dates, the basketball game on Friday night… When you are young you are constantly in a state of anticipation. Well, my experience seems to indicate that when I am looking forward to something with anticipation, it just never seems to get here. I think they even made up a saying about a watched pot never boils.
Now let’s look at the average adult life. How many things do we really look forward to with great anticipation? Not too many, right? Even the Holidays come with a great deal of work, planning, stress or preparations that need to be attended to. Now lets take it a step further, How many things do you look ahead to with a certain amount of fear, dread, or, at the very least, with a certain degree of anxiety? I was listening to a country song the other day where the singer was complaining that there was “too much month at the end of the money.” Well, I for one can sure sympathize with that, and I think that most of the people I know find themselves in that situation.
So, when you are looking ahead with anxiety to the end of the month or the next holiday, or the evaluation at work next week, of course then, time seems to just fly by. My theory then is that when we look ahead with excitement, time goes by more slowly, when we look forward with anxiety, time seems to go more quickly.
The bottom line is that as you begin this Holiday weekend, you should plan as many activities that you love to do as possible. Plan time with your family, put it on the calendar and see to it that it happens, and in making sure that you are looking forward with joy, you will in reality be extending your life!
Do you know what time it is when the elephant sits on the fence? ................ Time to get a new fence!
Do you know why the boy threw his clock out the window? ……………. He wanted to see time fly!
Blessings
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