Latest / The Checkpoint Podcast: Questions / Episode 21 | Why do I feel like I’m running out of time?
Transcript
- The DECAF Network: Hey, it's Dex, creator of Reboot Player One and host at the Checkpoint. And ⁓ today's question is, why do I feel like I'm running out of time? Why do I feel like I'm running out of time? Quite an easy question. I think I've been feeling like I've been running out time since my first kid was born, which is ⁓ nineteen nineteen years ago now. I think up until that point. Time for me anyway was I wouldn't say it was non existent. It was a unit of measurement of when I had to do things. That was it. It it it wasn't I never felt of it as something That was a countdown that was getting me closer to, you know, the end or anything like that. Pre-kids, time was just, okay, this is it's time to wake up. It's time to start work. It's time to finish work. So around that time ⁓ it i it it wasn't like a countdown thing. Hugh the first kid, and there's now a visual repu a visual representation of time. You know, when they're firstborn, they're they're super tiny. ⁓ and then so the first day, great. First week, that's fine. First month, first six months, first 12 months. There's growth behind that. They grow bigger, they do things, they start to move around, they start to make cute noises. And All sense of time, at least for me, goes out the window. know, the the the habit of me checking the time to ⁓ to remind myself to do things changes because not only does the kid give you a visual representation of how much time has passed, you're constantly reminded by other people. ⁓ how old your kid? How old your daughter? How old's your son? And then you look at them and you they're like, twelve months. And then you you do this quick calculation and you go, twelve months. That's felt like three weeks. Like everything goes super quick. And once the kid grows up and they're going to constantly grow up, you then have flashbacks of when they were growing up and times, you know, you you'll think of birthdays, you'll think of significant events, you know. They might have broken a bone, or they might have changed schools, or there might have been a time when they've, you know, they've made friends with people they shouldn't have. Just all of these little things that ⁓ I I wouldn't say they're even significant. They're just glimpses of memories that you have. And then you do the very quick mental calculation of how old they were. There might have been six, there might have been ten, they might have been twelve. And then you then take that calculation and then you put it towards your life and you go, wow, like where did the time go? And because there's also a lot of focus on raising a kid, everything else becomes a bit of a blur because you're still expected to run life normally, but now you have this extra added prioritized responsibility. And so amongst this whole looking after the Kid thing. You've got looking after the work thing. You know, is the house okay? Is it going to be fine with, you know, an extra person? Then you have just social events, you know, what's going on in the world? Are the prices going up or down? Is there a is there a disease coming along? ⁓ and then you have another kid. And then it's exponentially, you know, worse. And and time goes faster again. So At least for me, because I have kids. ⁓ I can't speak for people that that don't have kids because I I I don't know what that feels like. I I feel like I'm constantly reminded of time running out because my kids are growing older and you know, if you think about it in a kind of a weird and twisted way, the older they get, the less time that I have 'cause I'm getting closer to, you know, any particular age. And I think on top of that as well, I I'm a person that likes to to start things at the start of the week. And for me that's a Monday. So, you know, let's just say I have a I have a really good idea on a Wednesday or a Thursday. And ⁓ I'll I'll say to myself, hmm, I'm gonna start that Monday because it's new week, like turning the leaf, so to speak, turning over the page. Don't know why I said leaf. And and so I lose a couple of days there. And and so when it comes time for the end of the month and and I'll sit down and I'll see, you know, if I've achieved anything, it's like the months go by fast. So the months go by fast, the years go by fast, and then you start to have external factors that affect your that affect your answer with regards to the time. You know, you s You know, the older you get, friends start to pass away. ⁓ you have people that get divorced, you know, you hear of your friend's kids eighteenth party, their twenty-first graduations. You know, there are these constant reminders of time and how time is going quickly because then you then bring that situation to yourself. ⁓ wonder what happens when my daughter graduates. Like, how old will she be? Okay, well, how old will I be? You know, there's there are just these constant reminders of events that, for me anyway, make me calculate time. So that's why I I I always feel like time is running out. Yeah, I think I I think I need to rephrase that. I don't feel like time is running out. I feel like time is is is going. I I don't I I don't think I'm working I I don't think anybody really thinks that they're living towards a particular date. No, 'cause nobody knows, right? It could be tomorrow, it could be in thirty, forty, fifty years' time. So you don't know the date. So I can honestly say that I don't think time, I don't have the feeling of it running out. I don't think of I don't have the feeling of, ⁓ my God, I've only got fifty years left or sixty years left or sixty days left. I just keep thinking that, wow, where has all that time gone? It's disappeared. It's wherever it goes. And then I'll think, Well, what have I done in that period of time? And that's when things get a bit funny. So to answer the question in a really long way and and I think I've changed the answer halfway through. I honestly don't feel like I'm running out of time because I don't know how much time I have left. However, I do feel like time is just flying by. You know, I I I I I get this and I understand the statement. People say you have twenty four hours every day, everybody has the same twenty four hours. I understand that. And there are people out there that'll say twenty four hours is a long time. And it is. I get it. It's twenty four hours. But the feeling of those twenty four hours is entirely different. ⁓ if you're staying at home, if you're doing things with your kids, if you're doing things with your family, if you're stressed, if you're if you're in a good mood, you know, th it there there's so there's so much to be said about your mental state as it pertains to the feeling of time. Because yeah, twenty-four hours is only ever going to be twenty-four hours for everyone. But how that twenty-four hours feels for you is going to be entirely dependent on what your state of mind is at that time, at that day. You know, it can change from minute to minute. You get take one call and then you can be the happiest person in the world. Another person can take a different call, they will be distraught to the point of, you know, like what's all of this for? So I understand that. Twenty-four hours, but it all comes down to how you feel. So I don't think that time I I don't think I feel like time is running out. I just feel like time is going by at a rapid pace because I just don't know how much time I have left. Okay, I think that'll be it for today's question. ⁓ if you have questions like this that you would like to share your answer with and maybe talk to other people that have the same kind of questions, we do this sort of thing every Wednesday. You can visit Tc dot rebootplay one dot com and all of the details are there. And till next question. I will sign off now. Thanks. I'm next. Bye.