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Dear ,
Welcome to September and my new email newsletter format.
I don’t know about you, but this month always seems to take me by surprise. And this year is certainly no exception.
I’ve come to realize that, as we grow older, it’s typical to think more and more about the passage of time. The idea that life seems to speed up each year is one that causes me - and nearly everyone my age or older - to lament in disbelief. We are mystified by the acceleration. Baffled, even.
And, whether or not we understand it, it’s happening.
The best rationale I’ve heard to explain this phenomenon is: the longer we’re alive, each day that passes represents a smaller and smaller percentage of our total time on earth - just as 1/365 is a much larger number than 1/7,665. The number of hours in each day remain the same but our perception of their length changes. While this makes sense to me intellectually, it does nothing to explain the feelings that come along with knowing that there’s no stopping the intensifying march of time.
For me, these feelings include, but are not limited to, a persistent low-grade panic, a deep-rooted reverence for productivity, and an unseemly obsession with to-do lists. After all, if we’re to make the very most of our rapidly diminishing time, we need to do as much as possible, right?
Maybe not...
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