What if time works differently?
Perhaps our purpose stretches across lifetimes.
I’ve always felt this pressure to accomplish something while I’m alive – to make an impact, build something big, change something fundamentally for the better. For my life’s work to matter. And for me to see the fruit it yields.
I’ll admit, that belief is pretty motivating. It’s certainly helped me make some big decisions. The Death-Pressure-Test I call it – if I were to die one month from now, is this how I’d want to spend my time? And if the answer is no, that tells me something. But sometimes, it leaves me feeling like what I’m doing now isn’t enough. I wonder if my efforts will ever lead to the impact I hope for. At its worst, these questions paralyze me.
Lately, as I’ve been meeting different parts of myself—the gatekeepers to my beliefs about value, worth, and purpose—I’ve started to wonder: what if our relationship with time is all wrong?
The other day, while meditating, I got one of those truth whispers—the kind that comes out of nowhere yet lands with certainty. Like most truths, it arrived quietly, while in nature— a gentle breeze meant to catch my attention. It said this:
Timelines are longer than we think.
The arc of our work, and our impact, stretches beyond a single lifetime. We may have a vision for how our lives will unfold while we’re here, but that’s only a small part of the story we contribute to. Maybe our real purpose—our shared purpose—is simply to choose the best path for this moment, planting seeds along the way for future hands to tend and harvest. Much like the forward-thinkers and artists who went largely unknown in their lifetimes—Van Gogh, for one— whose work now shapes how we understand and appreciate our place in the world.
Holding life’s outcomes with a broadened view has freed me. It places a different value on the now – making it no less important, but certainly more expansive. Our choices matter, but perhaps the impact we are looking for isn’t something outside of ourselves, but right in front of us. The sum of our contributions cannot be quantified by us alone, because we only hold one part of the equation. But, we can enjoy the view we have, leaving a little more room to create freely, knowing the impact will find its own way.