Time Warp

Time WarpHave you ever wondered why time seems to pass more quickly as you age? Or how vacations seem to flash by as work days never seem to end?

There are several reasons for these perceptual and temporal distortions. One interesting explanation is offered by Scott H Young on his blog dedicated to getting more from life.

Simply stated, there are two explanations for why this happens.

The first is that, as you age, each year becomes a proportionally smaller amount of your life. The last five years of a 15 year-old’s life make up one third. By the time you’re fifty, it’s only 10%.

From this perspective, time accelerates because we judge time relative to the totality of our other experiences. There is no scientific proof this hypothesis is correct, but scientists could discover some neurological basis for this time gestalt in the future.

The second, and in my (and Scott’s) opinion, more likely perspective is that time seems to accelerate because our lives become more routine. For a teenager, every year is different. For a middle-aged office worker, change is gradual (or nonexistent).

Of course, if the second hypothesis is correct, that the acceleration of time isn’t a natural byproduct of aging, but due to life becoming increasingly stable (or boring), that suggests an alternative for stretching psychological time.

So if you feel like this is trickling by at an agonizingly slow pace, try something new, change your patterns and habits…

See what happens and let us know how you go!

 

0 Responses to “Time Warp”


  • No Comments

Leave a Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *