How Time Flies

I was eavesdropping on a conversation recently -- probably that of one of my faithful readers -- in which the topic was how the summer months fly! Everyone gets that feeling as they get older. I remember in grade school and high school how the summer used to go on forever. But in recent years it has seemed to fly by. I'm not sure why. One of the parties in the conversation surmised that it was because we tend to wake up the same time, go about the same morning routine, go about the same afternoon routine, go about the same evening routing, go about the same nighttime routine, go about the same sleeping routine, repeat. Thus day one blends into day 10, blends into day 100, blends in with the last day of summer. And it's over.

The suggested solution was Do something new every day. In that way, every day becomes a unique time point against which to measure the passage of time. One can distinguish between day one and day 10. Each day has a unique purpose. No day is alike. An interesting concept.

I began thinking about how many unique things I could come up with to do. My list was pretty short. I've often thought about putting a list down on paper. If I did that, it might be a little longer. But the list in my head was short. It kind of resembled the routine in the first paragraph. Along with the problem of putting together a list comes the problem of motivation. When the summer starts, but days seem endless. One gets the feeling that it will never end, so why start worrying about how to fill the days now! Well, I'm coming to the point in life, like an old person, that I realize there's probably not endless days in sight -- so start thinking of some things to do. That's not very motivating.

What is motivating to me is making those lists. When I see something on paper, I go after it for a few days. So, my job for a few minutes each day is to make a list of things to do, and then figure out how to do them. Lists are very motivating -- more motivating for me than even, say, someone nagging me to get something done -- much more motivating. When someone nags me to do something, my response is to put it off. When my list tells me to do something, I'm more prone to do it! Weird? I'm not sure. But it seems to work. Now all I have to do is find motivation to make those lists each day! I'm not sure why the lists work, but they do.