YOU CAN'T GET TIME BACK

You ever work what feels like 45 minutes, look at the clock, and realize only eight minutes passed?

Then you do something you love and somehow hours disappear.

Why does time do that?

In this episode of Articulated Illustration, we look at the difference between how time passes and how time feels—and what that difference may reveal about the way we’re spending our lives.

Because time can drag.
Time can fly.

But either way, once it’s gone, you can’t get it back.

Articulated Illustration — Where we see things from unusual angles.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You ever catch yourself wishing the day would hurry up and be over? Be careful with that. Because you might be wishing away more of your life than you actually realize. 215. That's what the clock said. I worked and worked. Looked up again. 224. Nine minutes. Now, I would have bet money on it that it was 45 minutes. And that's when something hit me. The clock wasn't moving slow. My life was. Welcome to Articulated Illustration, where we see things from unusual angles. I'm your host, Dwayne Richardson Sr. This podcast is sponsored by me. But if you want to invest in purpose and build something together, let's make it happen. Word of the day. Irretrievable means something that's once is gone, is gone, cannot be recovered, it cannot be replaced, and it cannot be gotten back. Example, you lose $20. You can make 20 more. But yesterday, yesterday is irretrievable. Once it's gone, you can't go get it. So keep that word in your head today. Irretrievable. Now flip it. You're doing something that you actually like. You're watching a good movie, you're talking to somebody that you enjoy, and you're working on something that's yours. You're playing the game, whatever your thing may be. You look up, two, three hours are just gone. Same clock, both times. 60 minutes is 60 minutes. That doesn't change. But it did not feel the same. Not even close. One of those you chose, the other one, time just took from you while you weren't looking. And we all say the same thing when that happens. Man, where did the time go? And that's what got me thinking. Time didn't do anything different. We did. So here's what I really started noticing. When you hate or dislike what you are doing, you have a tendency to count every single minute. But when you love what you're doing, you stop counting altogether. Now, that's not just about being bored or having fun. I truly think it's actually telling you something. Maybe watching the clock isn't just a thing of boredom. Maybe the clock is trying to tell you something about your life. And I'm not telling you to quit anything, and I'm not telling you to walk into work tomorrow and say, Dwayne told me to leave. Because look here, I cannot pay your bills, okay? So don't put that pressure on me. But what I'm just saying is pay attention. Because sometimes the things that we complain about are actually giving us information. Now think about how normal this has become. We spend Monday wishing it was Friday, and we spend the workday wishing it was five o'clock, and we spend the whole week wishing it was the weekend. As a matter of fact, I think Loverboy sings that song, Everybody's Working for the Weekend. And now I truly understand the meaning of that song. But anyway, but then almost in the same breath, we turn around and ask. And almost in the same breath, we turn around and say, Man, where did the last five years go? And you can't wish away that many hours and act surprised when the years disappear too. But that's the part nobody talks about. I think sometimes we divide our life into two categories without even realizing it. Now there's the part where we consider our real life. And then there's the part where we just are trying to get through. Work, get through it, traffic, get through it. Monday through Thursday, get through it. Waiting in line at Walmart, get through it. Then Friday night comes, and now we're living. But think about what that means. If most of your week is something that you are mentally trying to skip, you're treating most of your life like a commercial break. And you can't fast forward real life, my friends. And that's what started bothering me. Because even if the thing that you are doing isn't your dream, that hour is still your hour. That Tuesday is still your Tuesday, and that year is still your year. Now, you may not love the situation, and you may not want to stay there forever. But the time you're spending there is still coming out of your account. And unlike money, my illustrators, there's no deposit coming later. There's no overtime check for time. Once you spend it, it's gone. And we treat clock watching like it's just something that happens to us, like it's harmless. But if you're constantly wishing big chunks of your life would hurry up and be over, that's worth sitting with, not panicking about, and not making some wild decision tomorrow morning. Just sitting with. Because here's the thing about time. You can change how it feels, but you cannot change how much of it that you get. Now hear me out. This is not meant to be controversial, okay? But this is facts. Now think about somebody that's incarcerated. A year is still 365 days, whether you are free or not. But you just can't get in your car and go somewhere. You can't decide if you want something to eat and go get it. And you can't say, I'm tired of looking at these walls. I'm out. So now you'll count on days, counting months, maybe years. Now time turns into something you can feel in your chest. But here's what got me. A lot of us are doing that same counting. We just don't call it that. We call it can't wait for Friday and can't wait until this shift is over. I can't wait until my vacation. I can't wait until I retire. Nobody's locked up. But a lot of us are still doing time. And some people have been doing time for years in places that they are technically free to leave. Now, before somebody hears that and says, Well, I have bills, I know I have them too. And that's real life. But there are times you just cannot leave the job. And there are times that you cannot immediately change the situation. And responsibility, more often than not, means doing something that you rather not do. And my illustrators, that's adulthood. That's being a grown-up. But here's the difference. You may not be able to leave the situation today, but you can't stop pretending that the situation has to be permanent. You can start building something, learning something, saving, planning something, applying for something, even changing something. And even a small move reminds you, I'm not just waiting for Friday. I have motion. I'm moving somewhere. And that's a big difference. Because waiting feels different when you are heading somewhere. Let's think about it. You're sitting in a doctor's office. Now, if you don't know how long you're going to be there, 20 minutes feels like forever. But if somebody says you're next, now the same 20 minutes feels completely different. Why? Because now there's direction, there's an endpoint, and there's movement. Sometimes the problem isn't just that life is hard. The problem is you don't see where the hard part is taking you. And I have been guilty of that, and I am still guilty of it. And once that time is gone, it's gone. You lose $20. You can go make 20 more. TV breaks, go to Best Buy and buy another TV. Lose a job, well, in this economy, hopefully you'll find another one quick. But most things you can replace. But time ain't one of them. You can't go on Amazon and order another Tuesday. And you can't say, I wasted 2024. Let me get a refund on that. Nope. It's gone. It's a wrap. History. And that's what makes time different from almost everything else we value. And we usually don't realize how expensive it was until after we have spent it. Now, real quick, before you take this the wrong way, resting is not wasting. A slow Sunday isn't wasting. And taking a nap is not wasting. Sitting on the couch watching a movie is not automatically wasting. Now, doing absolutely nothing sometimes is exactly what you needed that day. And this isn't some wake up at 4 o'clock, grind every second, and never sit down. And team, no sleep, team, no rest speech. No, you need rest and you need joy. You need moments where you are not producing anything. But the question is whether you chose that time or whether you were just trying to escape your life. My illustrators, and that's the difference between saying, I'm tired and I'm going to rest tonight, and saying, I just need this whole week to hurry up and be over. One is rest, the other is rejection. You're rejecting a piece of your own life. And if that keeps happening, maybe the clock isn't a problem. Maybe the clock is the messenger. Here is today's articulated illustration. Picture two people looking at the exact same clock. One person is begging it, please hurry up. And the other person is thinking, Man, I wish this moment would slow down. Same clock, same 60 minutes, same 24 hour day. So, what's different? Not the clock, but the relationship with the moment that they are in. Maybe the clock isn't stealing anything from you. Maybe it's showing you something. Maybe the clock is a mirror, and it's showing you how you feel about the life that you are living while you are looking at it. And that's the unusual angle. Sometimes watching the clock isn't really about time, my illustrators. Sometimes it's about what you're doing with it. So, what do you do with that? You don't have to blow your life up, and you don't have to quit tomorrow, and you don't have to make some dramatic announcement. Start small. Ask yourself, what am I always wishing that would hurry up? And then ask, why? Is it the job, the environment, the people, the routine, the fact that you may not be building anything that belongs to you, or the fact that you keep saying one day. But have you given one day a date yet? Now, here's one thing you can actually do right now. Now, before you go back to your day, pick the one thing that you are always wishing away and put one date on it. Not someday, and not this year, hopefully. A real, actual, tangible date. So when you take the first step, send the application, make the call, sign up for the class, open the account. And it doesn't have to be big, it just has to be real. Because movement changes waiting. Now, you're not just trying to get through something, you're going somewhere. And what I have learned, and I am still learning, usually the things that you are avoiding are the things that's going to propel you to get where you need to go. The mic dropped. You can't spend your whole life waiting for time to pass and be shocked when it did. Because five years are coming either way, and that's not up for debate. The calendar is going to say 2031, whether you did anything different or not, you're going to be older, and I'm going to be older, God willing. Everyone watching this is going to be older. Now, the question isn't whether the time will pass. It will. The question is, what were you doing while it passed? Were you only surviving it? Were you always waiting for the next weekend? Or were you slowly moving towards something that made you stop watching the clock so much? So next time you catch yourself watching the clock, like that 215 I told you about, don't just push through it. Ask it something. What are you trying to tell me? And maybe the answer is, I'm just tired today. Fine. And maybe the answer is I need a vacation. And that's fine. But maybe if you are being truthful, the answer is, I've been wishing too much of my life away. And my illustrators, that's a hard and different conversation. Now, if this got under your skin a little bit today, if you caught yourself thinking about your own 215, do me a favor, hit subscribe and share and like. So next time we sit with something like this, you are already in the room. And drop a comment and tell me what you are counting down to right now. Friday, vacation, retirement, something else. I want to see it. So the next time you catch yourself staring at the clock, waiting for 5 o'clock, waiting for Friday, waiting for a vacation, and waiting for some part of your life to hurry up and get here. Remember this. The clock isn't just telling you what time it is. It might be telling you about how you feel about the life you are living. And whatever time you spend wishing away, you don't get any of it back. Not one second. Irretrievable. So don't just ask, what time is it? Every once in a while, ask yourself, What am I doing with the time that I have? Always remember to do what's absolutely necessary every day. And keep the pen in your hand. Why? It's your life, your vision, your time. And until the next illustration, we'll talk later.