The Secret Powers of Time. What Time You Got?

(First posted 9/30/19)

Arguments, fights, lawsuits, divorces, and wars happen because of miscommunication.

Today, we have Boomers and Gen X, Millennials (Gen Y), Gen Z, and now we have Generation Alpha, so named because they are the first to be born entirely in the 21st century.

How do you communicate with all of these generations to grow your business? To keep order in the family? To strengthen your community?

How can you become more efficient and productive in communicating with everyone, yet do it without adding a ton of stress in your life?

The six time zones:

• Two on the past

• Two on the present

• Two on the future

The Past

• The good times/nostalgia: Past Positive

• The bad/regret/failure: Past Negative

The Present

• Hedonistic: Avoid pain, seek pleasure, seek knowledge and sensation

• “I’m fated.” “It doesn’t pay to plan.”

The Future

• Most of us are here.

• We’ve learned to work rather than play.

• To resist temptation.

• But depending on your religious beliefs, many believe that life begins after the death of the physical body.

• This requires trust in the future.

• Protestants (future) are more productive than Catholics (present/past), as are Northern Italians vs. Southern Italians.

  • Future vs. Past orientations.

  • There is no future tense verb in Sicilian Italy. Sicilians never plan! 

Shared time perspectives characterize nations.

“A Geography Of Time: The Temporal Misadventures of a Social Psychologist,” by Robert Levine

• The Pace of Life

• Sense of Duration

  • Bored

  • Excited

• Cultures and cities

• Cities with the highest pace of life have the most coronary problems among men

As infants, we all begin as present hedonists.

A child drops out of school every nine seconds in the U.S., and it’s worse for boys.

Boys play video games and watch porn. They live in a world they create. It hurts them socially as well.

Their brains are being rewired, and they will never fit in a traditional analog classroom. They are bored. It’s too passive. They control nothing.

School is all about learning delayed gratification, and you can’t reverse the trends that our youth—especially our young men—have encountered.

All addictions are addictions of present hedonism: food, sex, drugs, gambling, etc.

All of our propaganda is aimed at future-oriented kids who aren’t the problem.

• Don’t smoke

• Don’t do drugs.

• Don’t have sex.

Present-oriented kids know the future consequences. But that knowledge never gets back to their heads to change their behavior.

People are angrily waiting for their computers to boot up and files to be downloaded and waiting for their coffee orders to be filled.

50% of Americans said they are busier this year than last and that they are sacrificing friends, family, and sleep for success.

If they had more time, they’d spend it working harder.

20 years ago, only 60% had regular sit-down dinners. Now only 20% do.

We talk about family values, but if you don’t eat together, you can’t have family values.

Most conflicts are due to different time perspectives.

We need to understand ours and those of others.

It’s simple…will you do it?

What do you think?

Now go sell something.