Temporal Landmarks...
and Other Cosmic Things
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.