Every living being since the beginning of time has had the same 24 hours a day. So why is it that I feel, especially in the last few years, that my days seem to be getting shorter and shorter.
Is it the real-life application of Einstein’s theory of relativity? Where each day progressively becomes a smaller percentage of your overall life? The day you were born represented 100% of your life. Day two only 50%. Day three a mere one third. And on and on, until we arrive at the point we are now, where each day is an infinitesimal amount of the overall span of time that represents the sum total of our experiences on the planet.
I think there is a much simpler explanation! All those wonderful devices that we employ to make our lives easier and lighten the load in getting mundane tasks accomplished, have actually had the opposite effect. Now, we do things while in transit, or from locations where we could never have thought of checking one more thing off our “to do” list. Why? BECAUSE WE CAN!
Therein lies the problem. We over-commit in an effort to maximize our effectiveness and increase our output because we can do it at the click of a button, but does that really mean were making the best use of our time. We no longer have time to really consider any issue in depth, before we turn around and make some sort of decision about that, whatever it may be.
All I’m saying is, take a moment to breathe. Don’t be so quick to give into the Pavlovian response every time you hear that little bell (or chime or ding) and immediately respond to that text or email. We unwittingly got on this treadmill so that ultimately we could get off of it…to finish work and have made enough revenue in doing so that we could relax, unwind, maybe even take a vacation, and live life!
So what I am saying is: Stop! Relax. And live life! Maybe just for a little while.
