Happy Friday, Friends!
With school fast approaching, many of us are in a mad dash to go on that last trip, pay one more visit, or do that thing we thought we had all the time in the world to do. Our race to jam in all of the experiences we’d hope to make for ourselves or our families is nonstop. Time feels short and it seems to be pressing on us, making us feel stressed and sometimes a little bit of panic.
Our thoughts and behaviors depend on what season in life we’re in, and those thoughts and behaviors swing more frequently when approaching life changes, big or small. There has to be a name for this. Assuming I’m not the only one to wonder, I did what anyone in the 21st century would do when noodling on something unfamiliar… I googled it.
IT IS A THING, friends, and IT HAS A NAME. It’s called Time Perspective. Now I’m pretty new to this information too, but I’m going to give you a glimpse of what I’ve unpacked so far and it’s fascinating.
TIME PERSPECTIVE
A Stanford University Psychologist, Philip Zimbardo, crafted the term “Time Perspective”, arguing that who we are is defined not just by how social or optimistic we are, but it also is largely to do with our perspective on time. Our perspective on time plays a key role in every single decision we make. Some people need to determine how they view the past, present, and future and how those perspectives hold them back in order to reconcile our needs with our values.
Zimbardo outlines six main Time Perspectives. Check them out below- I bet you can see yourself in just about all of these.
- Past Positive – folks focus on the “Good Old Days”. Nostalgic. Souvignier and childhood friend keepers
- Past Negative – focus on what went wrong in the past. Pessimistic folks who describe themselves as ‘realists’
- Present Hedonistic – live in the moment to seek pleasure. Focus on avoiding pain. Often addictive personality traits or those similar to a cat.
- Present Fatalistic – feeling like fate is predetermined. Feeling like their actions don’t make a difference.
- Future – always thinking ahead, often workaholics with little time for pleasure. I know a lot of people like this. You do too.
- Transcendental-Future – believing life after death is more important than the life that you’re currently living (think Egyptian Pyramids).
Here’s the challenge: identify what time perspective you carry with the most, and balance it with other perspectives. Learn how to isolate the trauma and self-doubt and what perspective you have more of, and rectify that by challenging your own thoughts and feelings. Consider how your regrets can work for you. Instead of dwelling on the negative past try to focus on the positive future. If you define yourself as a realist, examine what in your past happened that helped create those feelings of doubt and negativity and flip the switch on those Debbie Downer thoughts. If you feel like you have little control over your own future, don’t lie down, stand up and ask yourself why. There is always a reason for your thoughts and behaviors. People, we aren’t goldfish.
Leadership 1.0 teaches us to not settle for face value and to probe for better understanding in any situation. Go at least three questions deep with the people you lead as well as yourself. Self Leadership is just as important and quite often overlooked. If you aren’t spending some time unpacking who you are and why you’re this way, you are metaphorically choking out your own self-growth.
If you’d like to learn more about Time Perspective, here are a couple of the articles I devoured this morning in a moment of extreme hyper-fixation. Enjoy!
THE IMPORTANCE OF OUR TIME PERSPECTIVE
TIME PERSPECTIVE AND SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS
Fun fact, if you’re exploring scholarly reports on the internet, add ‘PDF ‘to your keyword search and it’ll sometimes get you around a paywall.
As always, it is an honor and a privilege to be in business with each and every one of you.
Best,
Coach Lins
