It happens to me every year at this time. Life starts moving too fast. I get this overly anxious feeling that the days, weeks, months and years are just passing me by. Wasn’t I just applying for college? Now I’m midlife and feeling a lot closer to retirement. It’s like someone pushed the fast-forward button.
When this feeling shows up, the best way to counteract it’s intensity is to conjure up a good adventure. When time seems to be flowing by like the rushing water of a river, it means we’ve gotten into a frenzied flow of days, errands, obligations and routines and we need to build a damm. What do I mean by that? Do something that interrupts your every day patterns. Get uncomfortable. Make it memorable. Get out in the cold. Work up a sweat. Call someone you haven’t spoken to in a while. Do whatever you need to do to get out of your comfort zone.
When you do something new, the day can last forever. You make note of it in your brain. You build a memory. As kids, we were building memories all the time… climbing trees, jumping off roofs, rolling down hills. Time stood still in those moments. Everything was new. Everything was an adventure— sometimes thrilling, sometimes frightening but always more memorable.
Passing the half-century mark, it’s easy to start thinking about all the career goals you haven’t achieved or the places you’ve always wanted to travel to and think time is running out. And guess what? It is! Stop the flow by creating memorable moments. Don’t go back to the familiar. While we can’t really stop time, we can make the best of it. You don’t have to hike the Grand Canyon (though that is one of my favorite adventures,) just go somewhere today you’ve never been before.