Using Time To Our Advantage
Posted by Evan Bailyn on Thursday, January 19th, 2012 with 0 comments
Time is one of the largest ideas we never truly understand. It is a concept of the same magnitude as space and energy, but unlike them, it cannot be physically witnessed; time is simply something we believe in.
Time is, fundamentally, a change of events. We recognize time to have passed only when something changes – a person takes a step, a gust of wind blows, our leg itches. Even the least impactful event, such as the tremor of a hand, is considered a passing of time. And, by definition, if no event occurs – if no water flows in a river, if no blood circulates in the body – then time has not passed. But something always seems to happen, and thus time always passes.
Our society teaches us to group these micro-events into clusters, or macro-events, such as meetings, football games, and vacations. Clock time is the most obvious example of aggregating micro-events into macro-events. It is easier to say “I went to the mall for three hours” then “I walked 8,000 steps, my heart beat 10,800 times, my retina collected 48,616 visual stimuli,” and so forth.
Yet, although it is clear how convenient these macro-events are for communication, they have caused an adverse effect in our lives as well. People are apt to make themselves busy, outwardly or inwardly, in order to distract themselves from the true issues they are concerned about. Although they may not realize it, being busy is just the act of causing many events to occur, and thus causing one’s time to pass quicker.
Once we realize that time is merely a succession of micro and macro-events, we can use it to our advantage. Rather than making many events occur in order to speed up our perception of time, we can make fewer events occur – slowing down time – and giving us a better ability to reflect on and appreciate our lives.
Evan Bailyn is a serial entrepreneur, search engine and social media expert, celebrated author and child advocate. His company, First Page Sage, is a leader in search engine optimization and social media marketing - vastly increasing business for its clients through high SEO rankings, targeted Facebook advertising and viral videos. Evan is also the founder of the Evan Bailyn Foundation, a foundation dedicated to teaching emotional awareness to children and adults.
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