Why Time Flies When You’re Having Fun

About a month ago, I was having a conversation with my friend Randy Clark via Twitter about how this year has just flown by.   Randy is a few years older than me and he put his elder wisdom to work and explained a couple of things and inspired me to write this for the new year…

It’s true that time is a predictable and consistent measurement,  2015 had 365 days, divided up into 12 months, or 52 weeks with an extra day left over.  Just like 2014 and 2013.  (2016 is a leap year with 366 days.)

We can measure a week as 7 days.  Each day has 24 hours.  Each hour has 60 minutes and each minute has 60 seconds.    All of this is accepted and predictable. 

But why does time seem to zip by the older we get?  Maybe it’s because we are having more fun, but I doubt it.  Maybe it is because we are busier, but that’s not applicable to all of us.

Think back on when you were 10 years old. Time seemed to last longer than now that we’re older. What Randy pointed out is that the longer we live, each day is a smaller percentage of our total life.   Randy and I are both over 50 so I’ll use the comparison of being 10 years old versus 50 years old.

One month in a 10 year olds life is  1/120 of his life.  One month in a 50 year olds life is 1/600 of his life.  If you do the math using days, the difference is even bigger, proportionally speaking.

What I haven’t figured out is how when you are in an auto accident, everything seems to move in slow motion.  If you know that answer, let me know.

In the meantime, Happy New Year and welcome to 2016 already!