audio narration by David Marlow
As human beings, we innately respond to certain moments that mark the passage of time. Whether it's the fresh start of a new week, month, year, or, as we recently experienced, the midpoint of a year.
These are known as temporal landmarks.
Temporal landmarks are dates that have a significance that separates them from our ordinary days, and which separate a past period from the present/future one.
Temporal landmarks sound like something from a time travel story; in a way, they are.
They help draw a boundary between one period in our lives and another.
Research suggests that they can help provide motivation for change giving us a fresh start.
Temporal Landmarks provide a spark to start again. We can mentally consign our old selves to the past; detaching our image from past mistakes and imperfections.
The cartoon above touches on an interesting temporal landmark, the last year of a decade.
Adam Alter and Hal Hershfield coined the term ‘9-enders’ for people in the last year of a life decade. Those who are 29, 39, 49, 59, and so on.
When people near the arbitrary end of a decade, something stirs that often alters their behavior.
For example, while first-time marathon running participation drops off after the age of 40 it shoots back up dramatically at 49.
In fact, a runner is three times more likely to sign up for a marathon at 49 than at 50.
In my own case I ran my first at 57 though looking back I had that arbitrary marker of 60 in my mind when I decided it was time to run one.
🌀Temporal landmarks hold a unique power over our perception of time and offer opportunities for reflection and renewal.
What if you used the mid-year point of 2023 as a temporal landmark?
What have you thought about doing this year but haven’t?
Remember, every day is a fresh start, temporal landmark or not.
Why wait?
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Thanks God I was able to come back after so many attempts to log in☺️
Can I consider this experience as an example of Temporal Landmark? I have that somewhat feeling of lost that after going on circles trying how to navigate to my account I finally found it.
The feeling of being unwanted, isolated, all alone, is very daunting and unbearable and at the same time frustrating 🙃🫡😪
"Temporal Landmarks"... that's it!
I keep remembering that as something else (mile markers, signposts... 🙃 )
This is so interesting to me, because as I look back I can see that the Summers of '88, '98, and 2008 were all pretty big for me, but I hadn't noticed them intentionally at the times.