WEBVTT - #2156 Long Days, Fast Years - Harps 0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:03.600 Good Day, Champs has hope you bloody great another solo today, 0:00:03.680 --> 0:00:06.200 So if you're not a fan of the solos, see 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:08.800 it another day. If you are stick around, you might 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:11.160 like this. I don't know if this is a good 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:13.520 strategy or not. In fact, should I be strategic with 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:17.279 the podcast? I don't think so a little bit, But 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:19.240 I want to be aware. I guess the main thing 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:21.599 I want to be around the show and what we 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:24.079 put up in the conversations we have or the solos 0:00:24.120 --> 0:00:27.520 that I do, that I am consistently trying to bring 0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:31.560 something to the world, whether that's one person or one 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:35.760 thousand people or fifty thousand people, whoever listens. I'm trying 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:38.760 to bring something that might add value or insight or 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:45.120 understanding or knowledge to what you're already working with. And 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:49.560 I try to make the subject matter the conversations as 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:54.640 broadly relevant as possible. But if I'm being honest, I 0:00:54.680 --> 0:01:01.200 am biased. Do I'm biased? Do in that I often 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:04.959 just go with things that hopefully tick all the other boxes, 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:09.280 but things that have my attention in the moment. And 0:01:09.319 --> 0:01:13.480 I've spoken about this before, but it's like the context 0:01:13.520 --> 0:01:21.039 of time or the experience of time, how we interpret experience, 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:27.160 interact with, have a relationship with time as a subjective 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:32.319 experience versus the objective reality of time, which is time 0:01:32.440 --> 0:01:36.559 is a constant. Time is sixty seconds every minute, sixty 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:39.400 minutes every hour, bloody twenty four hours a day, et cetera, 0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:43.840 et cetera. Doesn't change. It's the same. But we're not 0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:46.480 the same. We're the variable. We are the thing. You know, 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:49.200 some hours can feel like a fuck and day, and 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:52.520 some days can feel like ten minutes for a range 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:59.680 of reasons. And so I started writing something. Firstly, I 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:03.360 wrote it host for Instagram, which was very brief, and 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:10.320 it didn't really set the world on fire. That's okay 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:13.240 because it wasn't didn't say shit or fuck or cock, 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:17.800 which everybody seems to like on Instagram or my followers 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:19.480 what is wrong with you, by the way, But my 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:23.080 followers on Instagram, I've said this before. If I post 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:25.760 two identical posts but one as swearing and one does not, 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:29.320 the one we're swearing will ten x the one without 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:32.840 swearing pretty much every time. In fact, I've had that 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:35.720 happen with my books. My biggest selling book is called 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:40.480 Stop Fucking Around. And so, for whatever reason, good or bad, 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:46.519 you're all fucking riff raff. That's it. But sometimes I 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:48.880 open that it's almost like, you know, with comedians. I 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:51.000 don't know if you ever listen to comedians how they 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:53.320 write and how they work and how they develop what 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:56.480 they call bits a bit as a joke, And I'll 0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:59.400 come out with a bit and it won't really work 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:01.440 or a joe, and then they'll take it back, they'll 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:03.920 polish it, they'll change a few bits, it'll get a 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:09.520 better response, it'll you know, and then eventually that concept 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:15.320 as something to make people laugh becomes a really funny 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:17.760 joke over time, but it needs to be developed because 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:20.880 we're trying to land with humans who are not us. 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:24.880 We're trying to gain some kind of response, and so 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:30.040 too with my stuff. I'm always thinking about what will 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:32.440 make people laugh, but what will resonate with people? What 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:35.040 will land with people? And if I'm doing a one 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:37.520 on one coaching session with somebody, or I'm in front 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:40.400 of a thousand people in an auditorium, or I'm talking 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:42.920 to you on a podcast, I'm always trying to be 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:48.360 cognizant of mindful of what is this like, what is 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:53.560 this idea, this subject, this language, this conversation. What is 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:57.200 this like as an experience for the person on the 0:03:57.240 --> 0:03:59.480 other side of me or the person's on the other 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:02.160 side of me, Because I also have to be aware 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:04.160 that the only person in the world who thinks like me, 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:07.560 exactly like me all the time is me. So I'm 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:10.520 not trying to inspire me, I'm not trying to resonate 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:14.480 with me. I'm not trying to empower me. I'm trying 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:18.960 to do that in some way for you. So I 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:22.840 started writing this piece. So the thing I did on 0:04:23.360 --> 0:04:26.360 Instagram didn't really fly, which is cool because it's learning. 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:29.159 And then I thought, you know what, I'm going to 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:31.039 write about it. I'm going to write a piece about 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:36.760 it because I think it is irrelevant and sometimes really 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:45.880 helpful idea to construct reality. I put an asterisk next 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:50.840 to that reality for us to explore because we all 0:04:50.839 --> 0:04:59.960 interact and intersect with time and the practical real world 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:04.080 reality of time in that it is a constant, and 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:08.360 the other reality of time from our point of view 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:12.320 is it is something that we navigate, something that we manage, 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:16.839 something that we interact with, deal with, prioritize, and also 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:22.400 something that we experience. So there's the practical objective reality 0:05:22.600 --> 0:05:26.560 of the constant that is time, and then there's the 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:31.599 also the reality of the experience of time is you 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:36.840 and me. So I want to talk about that. Anyway, 0:05:36.920 --> 0:05:39.719 started writing, Come on, harps, get your thoughts together. I 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:43.920 started writing, and I thought, I'll write like a maybe 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:46.039 one hundred to one hundred and fifty word little piece 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:48.560 on that, and maybe a few light bulbs will happen. 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:51.039 Al so maybe people will think it shit. That's always 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:54.520 a chance. Nonetheless, I started writing, and then by the 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:56.880 time I finished writing the brief piece that was three 0:05:56.920 --> 0:05:59.480 hundred words, I went, fuck it, I can't really post this. 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:03.839 It's too long. So I'm just going to keep writing them. 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:06.480 When I finish, I'll finish and maybe i'll post it. 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:10.479 Maybe i'll start a substack thingy or whatever, which I 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:13.520 don't have, and maybe I'll just post it somewhere as 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:17.080 a standalone article. And then I thought, I already have 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:19.880 an audience, so I thought I would share it with 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:24.160 you now forewarning. I've written what I'm about to read. 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:26.640 Nothing so far that I've said, of course, as scripted, 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:33.159 and I will freestyle around what I've written. But yeah, 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:36.039 I think it's a really interesting if not. You know, 0:06:36.200 --> 0:06:39.520 will it be transformational for many of you? Probably not, 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:42.680 but it is. It's just a really fucking interesting thing 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:47.400 I think to ponder and consider and to be aware of. 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:53.680 All right, So this is called long days, fast years, 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:58.359 the perceptual juxtaposition, you know, things that kind of go 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:04.400 together but don't, the perceptual juxtaposition of time. Have you 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:09.240 noticed this weird little human paradox. A Tuesday afternoon can 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:13.720 feel like a hostage situation, but somehow ten years disappear 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:17.440 in about three and a half minutes. A boring meeting 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:20.040 lasts longer than the Lord of the Rings trilogy, yet 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:23.320 your twenties seem to vanish while you're looking for your 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:27.880 phone charger and trying to remember passwords. Long days, past years. 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:32.480 It's one of the strangest things about being a human. 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:35.720 And no, you're not imagining it. Well, technically you are, 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:38.960 because your perception of time is constructed in your brain. 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:42.120 But you know what I mean. There's the outside your 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:44.600 mind reality of time, as I said in the into 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:49.440 a constant, and then there's the inside your mind version 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:53.680 of time that is your subjective experience of the constant 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:58.800 that is ever present, the clock that never stops. So 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:02.960 that's your subject experience or a story you tell about time, 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:08.680 or an interpretation or even feeling. But that becomes your experience, 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:12.600 your subjective experience of that objective thing. And of course 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:16.400 time itself is a constant. Sixty seconds is sixty seconds, 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:19.240 whether your happy, miserable, board terrified, or standing in line 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:22.160 at the post office behind someone who apparently wants to 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:27.040 pay their electricity bill in coins. But our experience of 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:31.400 time that is widely variable, and that matters because psychologically speaking, 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:34.439 your life is not merely what happens to you. Your 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:38.560 life is largely what you notice, what you remember, and 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:43.480 what your brain decides was important enough to store, which 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:46.920 means your relationship with attention is in many ways your 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:53.040 relationship with life itself. Now that kind of sounds philosophical 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:57.600 and mildly instagrammable, but there's actually solid neuroscience and psychology 0:08:57.640 --> 0:09:00.320 underneath it. Because the human brain is not a camera 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:06.120 recording objective reality. That's really important. Your brain is not 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:12.800 a camera recording objective situation, circumstances, events, what we call reality. 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:18.160 It's more likely a highly selective, emotionally biased film editor. 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:23.160 It cuts scenes, it highlights moments, It deletes details, it 0:09:23.240 --> 0:09:28.600 adds emotional music, it distorts perspectives, it creates narratives. And 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:31.760 most of the time, while all that's going on, which 0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:34.840 goes on all the time, we're not even aware, we're 0:09:34.880 --> 0:09:39.640 not even driving that that's just happening despite us, not 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:42.560 because of us. And one of the most interesting things 0:09:42.600 --> 0:09:46.400 about human perception is that time is deeply tied to 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:51.240 attention and memory. When we are highly attentive, when something 0:09:51.320 --> 0:10:02.640 is new or emotionally charged or risky, exciting, terrifying, uncertain, meaningful, 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:08.760 the brain records more information. Kind of simplifying this language 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:11.880 a bit, but so we've got I guess we could 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:16.160 call it more psychological footage, so to speak. And when 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:19.840 the brain records more footage, those periods later feel bigger 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:25.480 and richer and longer in retrospect, which is why childhood 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:30.120 often feels enormous. Like think of how much of childhood 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:34.440 many of us can still recall or talk about, or 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:38.080 explore or share stories about versus other periods of your 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:41.040 life like twenty to twenty five might be quite different. 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:46.439 Because when we were kids, everything was new, Like everything 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:50.240 at some point was new and exciting and amazing and incredible, 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:53.400 and memory memorable, and it had our focus, and it 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:57.720 had our attention, and it had our emotion, and we 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:00.760 were very present because it was all new, and this 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:05.160 was awesome. Everything was new, new school, new people, new music, 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:11.320 new motions, new fears, new freedoms, new relationships, new experiences. 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:16.200 Your brain was laying down fresh neural pathways constantly. The 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:19.920 world wasn't predictable yet, because you were just opening the 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:22.800 door on your life. You were just opening the door 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:25.960 on all there is to be experienced. You were still 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:29.080 learning in a way, you were still learning what reality 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:32.160 even was. I don't think we still know that, do we. 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:40.160 Novelty stretches perception, then adulthood arrives and we become frighteningly 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:48.880 efficient wake up, phone, coffee, traffic, emails, meetings, work, dinner, Netflix, bed, 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:53.199 repeat until death, which is a bit dark, but it's 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:55.760 also for some people it's kind of accurate, and of 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:59.520 course your lists might be different. But the continuity the 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:04.520 ground hog danis the repetition, the doing things that aren't 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:08.880 as necessarily amazing or joyful or rewarding, doing those things 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:13.840 on autopilot, despite the fact that it's not creating the 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:17.440 existence we want. So many of us do that, And 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:22.320 the brain loves efficiency because efficiency conserves energy. Your brain's 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:26.600 essentially a prediction machine trying to automate as much of 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:29.040 your life as it can. I'm going to say that again, 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:33.840 the brain loves efficiency because efficiency conserves energy, and your 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:38.600 brain is essentially a prediction machine trying to automate as 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:43.560 much of your life as possible, which is great and 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:47.560 useful for survival. You don't want to consciously relearn how 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:50.760 to brunch brush your teeth every morning like some kind 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:57.280 of confused, anxious goldfish. The downside of automation is a 0:12:57.320 --> 0:13:02.040 thing that we call perceptual compression. So when days become 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:07.240 highly repetitive, the brain stops paying attention to close or 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:11.920 to detail because it already knows the pattern. And when 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:18.360 attention decreases, memory encoding decreases. And when memory encoding decreases, 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:23.040 life feels as an experience like it speeds up. I'm 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:26.680 going to say that from two sentences back. And when 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:32.120 attention decreases, memory encoding decreases. In other words, we don't 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:35.280 remember stuff much stuff because we're not paying attention. We're 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:38.199 not switched on, we're not focused, we're not energetically brought 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:41.120 into that thing we're seeing or doing or involved in, 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:45.360 and when the memory encoding goes down, life feels like 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:48.600 it speeds up, so that five years feels like it 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:52.240 was five months. In other words, routine can quietly become 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:58.800 an experiential time machine like that or a virtual time 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:02.920 machine from our point of view, not because time changes, 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:07.600 of course, but because awareness changes. There's some really interesting 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:15.640 research around this idea. Psychologists sometimes distinguish between prospective time 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:22.440 perception how time feels while we're experiencing it, and retrospective 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:26.600 time perception how long periods feel when we look back 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:32.000 at them. This explains another weird phenomenon. Difficult moments often 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:40.560 feel slow in real time. It stretches perception. Stress stretches perception, 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:48.600 Pain stretches perception. Waiting stretches perception. If you've ever sat 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:52.080 terrified in a doctor's waiting room wondering why it seems 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:54.320 like it's taking fucking weeks for your name to be 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:57.360 called because you're stressed about what's going to happen. You 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:00.240 think there's some impending doom or bad news, or you 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:02.600 just take going to the doctor, then you know what 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:06.880 I mean that twenty minutes can feel like twenty hours, 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:10.560 but later those same stressful months or years can feel 0:15:10.600 --> 0:15:18.040 strangely compressed in memory because stress narrows attention. When we're overwhelmed, 0:15:18.320 --> 0:15:22.680 we often fully stop experiencing life and shift into management mode, 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:26.680 survival mode, efficiency mode, get through the day mode. We 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:36.280 stop noticing and attention, psychologically speaking, is everything. So William James, 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:41.560 who's quite a famous bloke in American psychology. I think 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:44.880 some people called him the father of American psychology, he said, 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:49.760 my experience is what I agree to attend to, or 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:53.480 we might say give attention to, because you don't have 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:56.200 any experience around things that you're not giving focus or 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:59.640 energy or attention to. My experience is what I agree 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:03.200 to attend to. Now that's a profound idea, because whatever 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:09.320 repeatedly captures your attention, well, that gradually becomes your reality. 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:13.560 Your brain literally builds your lived experience from what you 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:19.440 consistently and consciously choose to focus on. Which is why 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:22.840 two people can live in the same place, and sit 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:25.840 in the same meetings, and have similar conversations, and have 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:29.480 the same job in the same or whatever, all the same, 0:16:29.600 --> 0:16:31.840 except none of them, neither of them are having the 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:39.160 same experience, because the experience that perception is not about 0:16:39.160 --> 0:16:42.560 what's going on, is not about the people around the 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:45.200 environment or the situation as much as it is how 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:51.240 each of those two individuals interpret those goings on. So 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:55.360 one might notice beauty and humor and connection and learning 0:16:55.440 --> 0:17:00.360 and challenge and possibility and hope and great things, and 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:04.080 the other focuses on outrage and stress and comparison and 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:08.440 threatned boom scrolling and all kinds of self induced despair. 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:17.639 So same planet, same environment, different reality. Attention is the 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:22.719 currency of consciousness, and modern life is aggressively competing for it, 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:27.240 your attention. That is es bestly on social media, especially 0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:30.560 on Planet podcast. Everyone wants you to listen to their stuff. 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:34.640 I get it. And this is important because our brains 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:40.359 evolved in environments when novelty was occasional and meaningful. But 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:45.040 now in twenty twenty six, novelty arrives every seven seconds 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:48.120 via a glowing rectangle in your hand. You scroll, you swipe, 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:54.040 you click, you're refresh, you repeat. We're overstimulated but under experienced. 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:57.679 And that's the paradox. We can shew more information than 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:02.600 any humans in history, yet many of us many I 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:06.760 talk to people every day who feel increasingly disconnected from 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:11.960 their own lives, and not only not only their own lives, 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:19.680 but their own bodies, their own relationships, because new information 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:24.560 is not new experience. Watching twelve travel videos is not 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:27.040 the same as sitting in a tiny cafe and Lisbon 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:31.240 trying to order a coffee in terrible Portuguese while wondering 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:34.200 whether or not you accidentally just asked for goat milk 0:18:34.200 --> 0:18:41.760 and a fork. Real experiences create depth, embodied moments, sensory richness, 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:46.800 emotional texture, and it's these moments that expand psychological time 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:50.439 because they force us into this present moment to be 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:56.320 here now, and presence is really really important, not in 0:18:56.359 --> 0:19:00.879 the kind of mystical, mythical crystal shop alone Sakra's with 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:05.320 the moon frequencies kind of vibe, but I mean in 0:19:05.359 --> 0:19:09.720 the simple psychological present. Your mind is present, you are here, 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:14.159 actually being where you are while you're there in this moment, 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:19.320 not transfixed by what might happen in the future or 0:19:19.320 --> 0:19:22.159 what happened in the past, but just being here right now. 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:26.960 And it sounds kind of ridiculously obvious until you realize 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:30.000 that most of us actually don't do it. I'm just 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:33.760 rereading as I said recently on a podcast a week 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:35.800 or two ago, I'm rereading The Power of Now by 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:40.600 Eckhart Toll. And it's an old book, and some people 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:43.080 think it's crap. Some people think it's like the most 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:47.000 brilliant piece of writing or insight ever. And I think 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:51.720 it depends which mindset or where your mind is at 0:19:51.760 --> 0:19:54.200 when you're going to read it. But for me, who 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:59.199 can be easily distracted, who can be an overthinker, not 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:02.080 in a stress way, but in a creative way. Sometimes 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:04.720 I'll have seventeen ideas while I'm having a shower, and 0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:07.640 I'll start to plan four of them before I get 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:09.359 out of the shower. And then I'll get out of 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:13.000 my shower and literally do this before I'm even dry. 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:16.040 I walk into my office where don't think about this, 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:19.520 by the way, and write things on the whiteboard because 0:20:19.520 --> 0:20:21.080 I don't want to forget them, because I want to 0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:24.600 turn the ideas into action, the theory into something practical, 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:27.639 and so on. But that doesn't always create good outcomes. 0:20:27.680 --> 0:20:31.680 So back to the book, Power Now, It's really about 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:38.960 for me slowing down and being present. And even when 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:41.520 I go for walk now, generally one hundred percent of 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:45.080 the time I'm listening to something. Now I've the last 0:20:45.160 --> 0:20:48.680 couple of weeks, I've been doing every second walk where 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:51.439 I don't even take headphones, I have my phone in 0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:56.000 my pocket. I'm not listening to anything. I'm just paying attention. 0:20:56.080 --> 0:20:59.480 I'm paying attention to my foot, my feet on the footpath, 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:04.040 paying attention to my breathing. I'm paying attention to my posture. 0:21:04.920 --> 0:21:07.760 I'm paying attention to the trees that I walk past, 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:11.600 to the wind against my face, to the noise or 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:15.520 lack of noise in the street that I'm in, and 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:19.960 so on and for me. But I'm not there yet 0:21:20.000 --> 0:21:24.199 by any means. It's still a conscious decision. But I 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:27.240 want to make that. I want to make that something 0:21:27.240 --> 0:21:30.160 that is just my default setting, where I am at 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:33.479 least a lot more of the time, truly in the moment, 0:21:33.760 --> 0:21:37.040 in the place I am, in the time I am, 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:40.480 in the energy that I am. I truly want to 0:21:40.480 --> 0:21:45.520 be there, because half the time we are mentally replaying yesterday, 0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:50.520 or we're rehearsing tomorrow, while our actual life unfolds unnoticed 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:53.080 in front of us, and then we wonder where the 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:57.919 years went. And there's also an interesting biological component to 0:21:58.040 --> 0:22:02.960 perceive time celeration as we age, and that is partly 0:22:04.119 --> 0:22:08.440 This is true and interesting. Each year becomes proportionately smaller 0:22:09.880 --> 0:22:13.440 relative to our total lifespan. So you know, when you're five, 0:22:13.600 --> 0:22:18.040 a year is twenty percent of your life. It is 0:22:18.119 --> 0:22:21.320 twenty percent of the totality of your lifespan to that 0:22:21.359 --> 0:22:25.840 point in time. But when you're fifty one year is 0:22:25.880 --> 0:22:30.040 two percent. So we've got twenty verses two, and so 0:22:30.280 --> 0:22:33.119 as a component, as a fraction, as a percentage of 0:22:33.160 --> 0:22:36.720 my life, a year seems to go quicker, but of 0:22:36.760 --> 0:22:40.399 course it doesn't. But as the sixty two year old, 0:22:40.640 --> 0:22:43.840 I'm going to be sixty three in a minute. But 0:22:43.920 --> 0:22:46.280 when you're won, and I'm sure you're not thinking about 0:22:46.359 --> 0:22:50.720 life or such matters or time, When you won your 0:22:50.720 --> 0:22:55.400 next birthday, which is two Thanks for explaining that, Craig. 0:22:55.520 --> 0:22:57.119 I don't know why I said that. Sorry about that. 0:22:57.280 --> 0:23:00.960 But when you won, your next birthday is literally based 0:23:01.000 --> 0:23:03.120 on where you're at right now as a one year old. 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:10.560 It's literally another lifetime away. It's crazy. But biology doesn't alone. 0:23:10.640 --> 0:23:15.960 Biology doesn't fully explain the phenomenon. Lifestyle matters enormously, novelty matters, 0:23:16.160 --> 0:23:23.679 learning matters, challenge matters, environment matters, attention matters, and we 0:23:23.720 --> 0:23:26.439 find that people who continue to explore and learn and 0:23:26.480 --> 0:23:31.359 travel and create and risk and adapt, they often report 0:23:31.400 --> 0:23:38.080 a richer and psychological slower experience of life. Not necessarily easier, 0:23:38.400 --> 0:23:44.880 not necessarily calmer, still be chaos, but fuller, because fullness 0:23:44.920 --> 0:23:48.920 is not the same as busyness, and modern culture confuses 0:23:48.960 --> 0:23:52.600 these two things all the time. We've become very skilled 0:23:52.600 --> 0:23:57.600 at scheduling our lives while accidentally disappearing from them. And 0:23:57.680 --> 0:24:04.040 many people are productive and busy, but also absent, efficient 0:24:04.760 --> 0:24:12.160 but disconnected, chronically stimulated, but psychologically somewhere else. We optimize 0:24:12.160 --> 0:24:17.080 our calendars but neglect our consciousness. And that sounds dramatic, 0:24:17.080 --> 0:24:20.280 but honestly, have a look around and even have a 0:24:20.320 --> 0:24:22.919 look within. And again, as I always say, not self loathing, 0:24:23.000 --> 0:24:26.520 just self awareness. Like I say all the time to people, 0:24:26.800 --> 0:24:28.760 in a minute, you're going to be five years older. 0:24:29.359 --> 0:24:32.600 And of course that's not true, but it's also true. 0:24:34.560 --> 0:24:39.040 So have a look around. People walking through beautiful parks, 0:24:39.240 --> 0:24:42.520 staring at phones, Families at dinner not looking at each other, 0:24:42.640 --> 0:24:45.240 not speaking to each other, either looking at their phone 0:24:45.320 --> 0:24:49.320 or looking over someone's shoulder at the TVs. People going 0:24:49.320 --> 0:24:52.200 to concerts who are not watching the concert, they're filming 0:24:52.240 --> 0:24:55.439 the concert, and they're looking at the concert through the 0:24:55.520 --> 0:25:00.159 screen on their phone. Beautiful sunsets and nature interrupted by notifications, 0:25:00.160 --> 0:25:04.600 Moments half lived because we're busy documenting them instead of 0:25:04.640 --> 0:25:10.080 experiencing them. And again, this isn't about being anti technology 0:25:10.160 --> 0:25:13.119 or moving into a forest and making soup from leaves, 0:25:13.440 --> 0:25:17.800 although that will be good. You know, I use Wi Fi, 0:25:19.200 --> 0:25:24.080 I by takeaway dinner. I'm not trying to churn my 0:25:24.119 --> 0:25:27.040 own butter. But we do need to recognize that attention 0:25:27.200 --> 0:25:35.480 fragmentation changes our experience of existence. Constant distraction creates shallow living, 0:25:36.240 --> 0:25:40.200 and shallow living compresses memory, as we said before, which 0:25:40.240 --> 0:25:43.600 is perhaps why many adults experience this haunting sense that 0:25:43.640 --> 0:25:49.439 life is speeding up while simultaneously feeling oddly repetitive, like 0:25:50.080 --> 0:25:53.400 they're busy all the time, but not fully alive inside 0:25:53.480 --> 0:25:58.119 the busyness. And sometimes I think that is that's the 0:25:58.200 --> 0:26:01.080 price we pay for technology and for all the stuff 0:26:01.119 --> 0:26:04.040 we dive into, and that's the hidden cost or maybe 0:26:04.040 --> 0:26:08.480 not so hidden cost of modern life. And not just 0:26:08.960 --> 0:26:16.920 stress or fatigue, but almost like the gradual erosion of 0:26:17.320 --> 0:26:22.200 our presence, A life can become incredibly full while at 0:26:22.240 --> 0:26:27.399 the same time feeling strangely unlived. So what do we 0:26:27.440 --> 0:26:28.879 do about this? What do we do with all this? 0:26:29.000 --> 0:26:33.880 How do we psychologically slow life down? Well, not by 0:26:34.000 --> 0:26:39.439 literally slowing clocks, obviously, but perhaps by interrupting our autopilot, 0:26:40.480 --> 0:26:46.080 by increasing conscious attention, by creating more novelty, more firsts, 0:26:46.240 --> 0:26:52.639 more challenges, more unpredictability, more depth. Travel can help. Learning helps, 0:26:52.680 --> 0:26:57.399 hard conversations, help creative projects, help, doing scary things, help 0:26:58.280 --> 0:27:02.160 doing new stuff, just doing new stuff, changing routines, being 0:27:02.400 --> 0:27:08.360 ge genuinely curious about things and people. Even small changes matter. 0:27:08.440 --> 0:27:10.600 Take a different route home, read a different book, talk 0:27:10.640 --> 0:27:15.000 to different people, learn a new skill, try a new 0:27:15.000 --> 0:27:19.560 thing it's somewhere unfamiliar, Put your phone away occasionally and 0:27:19.680 --> 0:27:24.320 raw dog it for twenty minutes. Oh that's a terrible term, 0:27:24.359 --> 0:27:26.600 isn't it, And see what happens? Because the goal is 0:27:26.640 --> 0:27:30.320 not merely to exist for a long time, but to 0:27:30.400 --> 0:27:35.080 actually experience your existence while you're there, while you're here, 0:27:35.840 --> 0:27:38.080 And perhaps that's the real issue under the whole long 0:27:38.160 --> 0:27:41.240 Day's fast year is phenomenon. It's not just about time, 0:27:41.280 --> 0:27:46.040 It's about consciousness. It's about whether where participants in our 0:27:46.080 --> 0:27:50.000 lives or merely managers of them. And I don't even 0:27:50.080 --> 0:27:53.520 think that. I think sometimes not only are we not 0:27:53.640 --> 0:27:57.320 participants in our lives or even managers of our lives. 0:27:57.400 --> 0:28:01.920 I think sometimes our life manages us, because our life 0:28:02.000 --> 0:28:05.600 has its own kind of energy and life force and 0:28:05.880 --> 0:28:11.640