There is the saying that we all have the same 24 hours in a day which means, we all have the same opportunity available to us but, is this actually true? I would suggest that while it is true conceptually, when it comes to the reality of the situation, time is relative steps into play. What I mean by this is that even though the time itself may not change, the way we experience it does change. On top of this, how we behave further warps the time paradigm.
The problem I have with the 'same 24 hour' saying is that it assumes that we are all uniformly equal and can all perform at the same rate. Time itself is the measure of movement, tracking something over distance. What the assumption is of equality means that we can all travel the same distance at the same speed. So, in 10 seconds, we can all cover 100 meters like Usain Bolt, we can all problem solve at the same speed as Hawking and we can all drive at the same speed as Ayrton Senna in the wet. It assumes that we all carry the same skillset.
The context it was presented in was that we all have the same attention in that 24 hours too and, we all can consume information at the same speed. Again, this is not true at physical level for someone who has a photographic memory can not only absorb the information but recall it was precision at a later point making future informational needs faster again. Talent and learned skill lays on a spectrum and some compound to improve speed, some compound to retard it.
What this all means is even though the concept of time can seem unbending, in practice what is able to be accomplished by one person over another can vary greatly. One person may be able to complete 100 units, another 50, another again 150 in the same 24 hour period. The assumption that 'all people are created equal' is obviously false across the physical, mental and emotional planes. Where equality does come into it is that we all have the capabilities to be our best.
What this means is that given our resources, we all have the possibility to use them in the best we we are able given our various limitations and, possibilities to improve ourselves for better utilization. We are not static beings, we can influence how we grow and, be influenced by external sources.
While we all may have the same 24 hours available to us, what we can do and what we actually do with it can have massive differences on the spectrum. One of my favorite sayings is, it isn't what you have, it is how you use it that is important. There are some people with very little who can create a great deal and, some with a great deal who create very little. How and where we spend our time affects how and where we are going to spend our time in the future.
For the most part, no one is going to improve without training, experience, exposure, movement and of course, failure. Even though we are all doing our very best at this very moment, it doesn't mean we can't improve for a new best tomorrow. What improvement means is that we can move slightly faster than we did today which means, tomorrow is effectively a little longer than today.
Are you at your personal terminal velocity or is there room for improvement?
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]