It Isn’t Time

Three months into this “semi?-retirement?!?” journey, and I’ve been reminded of a powerful lesson that’s followed me throughout my career. When we build elaborate expectations about tomorrow, we inevitably create gaps between imagination and reality that drain our precious energy.

I’ve been reflecting on how shifting from expectations to objectives changes everything. It’s like rewiring a feedback control system (the engineer in me can’t help these analogies). When our actions are out of phase with controllable factors, we waste energy on the gap between yesterday’s expectations and today’s reality.

Mental physics are fascinating. Construct an “estimator” for future states, with a little too much bias toward anxiety? You’ll find yourself working today to correct against error signals calculated between tomorrow’s imagined troubles and today’s reality — essentially spending mental capital on debts you’ll never actually owe.

What I’m learning requires balance across all timeframes: setting future goals to guide today’s actions, reflecting honestly on yesterday to understand cause and effect, and being truthful about what truly blocks our intentions.

The most surprising discovery? After having “more time” than I’ve had in 30 years, I can confidently say that time itself was never the barrier to those back-burner priorities. Resistance lies deeper.

My progress and development as a human wasn’t about having more hours — it will require deeper reflection on what truly stops me from taking action.