Time Flies – As You Get Older

When I was a kid the time between Christmases, vacations, and Fridays seemed like eternity. No longer. The older I get the faster time flies. I’ve done some research and it’s not just me.

Many feel time seems to accelerate as they grow older. Some folks, smarter than me, like scientists and psychologists have theories.

From a psychological standpoint, some say it’s about perception. The perception of time is heavily influenced by our subjective experiences and the way our brains process information. As we age, our brains become more efficient at processing routine and familiar information, causing the new and novel experiences that once used to stretch time to pass by more quickly.

Youth tend to have many new and novel experiences, which are more memorable. As we age, our routines become more established, resulting in fewer novel events, leading to less distinct memories. Life becomes boring. With fewer memorable milestones, our retrospection of time tends to compress, giving the illusion that time has flown by.

Anyone who has taken a road trip with kids has experienced their incredibly short attention spans. My wife and I have noticed that we can play a video game or scroll on Facebook and before we know it, hours have passed. Have we become victims of long attention spans?

Another theory proposes that as we age, each passing year represents a smaller proportion of our overall life experience. For instance, one year to a ten-year-old represents a full 10% of their entire life, while to a fifty-year-old, it is only 2% of their life. This psychological perspective suggests that our perception of time becomes compressed due to the relative scale of time frames.

I guess any or all of that could be true. I just believe there may be a spiritual explanation. God has given each of us a mission, and most of us have been diverted from it or frustrated from our efforts. It can become easy to sit around and think we deserve to “rest.”

When we were younger, we promised ourselves that we would get to His business “one day” when we “have time.” Maybe He influences our sense of time to press us to realize that this is the time. It’s easy for “retirement” to become just sitting around. As we move from our lifetime of business, it’s time to turn to His business. We will never have more time than we have now. It won’t be that long when we will run out of time.

I have blogged for many years. Recently I started getting notices from my website that there were technical problems. I knew I hadn’t blogged in a while, but I was shocked that it had been over a year since my last posting. I tried to focus my past posts on His business. I have been shocked into realizing that time is slipping away. It’s time for me to get back to business. What about you?