Playing the long game

How long is a day?

If you count in terms of hours, it’s 24 hours. Or you can look at it in terms of minutes, which is 1440 minutes. Or 86400 seconds.

Those are all familiar ways of looking at a day. But what if you looked at it from the other direction? Now, how long is a day?

In terms of weeks, it’s 1/7 which is 14.3% of time. Or in terms of months, it’s 1/30 which is 3.3%. And in terms of years, a day is 1/365 or 0.2% of a year.

Now, let’s assume you live for 80 years. A day is now approximately 0.003% of your life.

Tell me, when was the last time you noticed when anything increased by 0.003%?

But why oh why, do you complain that progress is taking longer than you thought? That you should be farther along by now? Tell me, once again, how much time has passed?

0.003%.

Exactly. We forget that time is relative. It all depends on the scale at which you’re looking at it. And this is the problem. We think that progress should be quicker when we’re actually measuring time using the wrong scale.

The key to playing the long game is to change the measurement of time. If you expect that you’ll excel in a field within 10 years, then a day is 0.02%. You’d be significantly more understanding of your progress with that metric. But if you expect to be successful by next week, then you’d better be 14.3% better, tomorrow.

If you’re struggling with patience in achieving your goals, always remember:

How long is a day?