THE ED MYLETT SHOW - Why New Experiences Make Life Feel Longer

Episode Date: September 19, 2024

Want to Feel Like You're Living a Longer, Fuller Life? Does it feel like time is flying by faster as you get older? In this solo podcast episode, I’m revealing a powerful secret to slow time down and experience a FULLER RICHER LIFE by creating new, dense memories. Here’s the thing—we often fall into routines that make life feel repetitive, and as a result, time seems to pass by quicker. But neuroscience shows us that when we engage in new activities and experiences, we create more vivid memories, which can actually slow down our perception of time. Here’s what you’ll take away from this episode: The neuroscience behind why creating new memories helps to slow down your perception of time. Practical tips on how to break out of your routine, like brushing your teeth with the opposite hand or taking a different route to work. The challenge to pick two new experiences over the next year that will enrich your life and create lasting memories. How anticipation of upcoming events can make your days feel longer and more meaningful. The importance of living with intention to create a life that feels fuller and more impactful. In this episode, I’m challenging you to stop letting time slip away and start living more DELIBERATELY. Whether it’s learning a new hobby, taking a new approach to your daily habits, or exploring a different aspect of your life, it’s all about engaging with the world around you in fresh, exciting ways. Tune in to learn how small shifts in your daily routine can create big changes in how you experience time and life. Let’s make every moment count and MAXOUT your time, together! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So hey guys, listen, we're all trying to get more productive and the question is, how do you find a way to get an edge? I'm a big believer that if you're getting mentoring or you're in an environment that causes growth, a growth based environment, that you're much more likely to grow and you're going to grow faster. And that's why I love Growth Day. Growth Day is an app that my friend Brendan Burchard has created that I'm a big fan of. Write this down, growthday.com forward slash ed. So if you want to be more productive, by the way the way he's asked me I post videos in there every single Monday that gets your day off to the right start he's got about five thousand ten thousand dollars worth of courses that are in there that come with the app also some of the top influencers in the world are all posting content and they're

on a regular basis like having the Avengers of personal development and business in one app and I'm honored that he asked me to be a part of it as well and contribute on a weekly basis, and I do. So go over there and get signed up. You're gonna get a free, tuition-free voucher to go to an event with Brendan and myself and a bunch of other influencers as well. So you get a free event out of it also.

So go to growthday.com forward slash ed. That's growthday.com forward slash ed. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are the things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations. ["This is the Admired Show." Music playing.]

This is the Admired Show. Welcome back to the show everybody. So I'm so grateful that you're here today. And you know what? Speaking of today, days, time, etc. didn't it seem like time passed much more slowly when you're a little boy or a little girl? Your childhood summers, didn't they seem to last longer than the ones do now? Summer just seemed to fly by, yet when we were kids they seemed to just last forever the endless summer and i've always wondered why that is and i also by the way love when i read

neuroscience that validates the work that i teach it's applicable work that i teach but when science kind of validates it and one of the things i've been so big on now for about a decade is imploring so many of you to try new things, have new experiences, and now I really know from a scientific standpoint that I'm right about that. And so time really did go slower when you were a child, by the way, and time really is passing you by and going much more fast now, and science can validate that. So first I want to thank someone who listens to the show named Melissa Bell, sent me this article and said I think you

should talk about this since you already talk about doing these things but now there's scientific work. So there's a great article out that I'm gonna you know want to give credit to in today's show from Ink Magazine and it talks about it's the title says want to feel you're living longer, a fuller life. Neuroscience says making denser memories is the best way to slow the passage of time Jeff Hayden wrote this article by the way, and we're gonna talk about today Your life and time and if things feel like they're just passing faster than they used to it's because it truly is At least in the way you experience it, you know, our life is the way that we experience it It's our version of experience it. It's our

version of our life. It's our filter of our lives. It's our reality is our life. Two people can experience the exact same things and have a different reality and they have a different life as a result of that. And so it actually turns out scientifically that your summers inside of you, in your mind, in your spirit, in your emotions, did pass more slowly. And that's because of something called dense memories. Neuroscience is now proving that the more you build dense memories, the more the perception and passage of time slows down. And so I want to talk about it with you today and then give you some suggestions as to what to do. You know, there's a... he talks about this too in his article, but there's this dock outside. I'm now

blessed that I live on this island that I was able to get a few years ago. And this is my first summer here. First time I've ever spent a summer here. And I have to tell you, it feels like the longest summer I've had in 30 years. And I've figured out that the reason for that is everything's new. The location's new, kind of being on an island is new, being in the part of the country that I now live in is newer. I'm having all these new experiences, discovering new parts of the place, new experiences, new hobbies that I've created since I've been here. To be honest with you, it feels like the longest summer I've had that I can ever remember. And now I know why, because my mind is creating all of these new dense

memories as opposed to thin familiar ones. There's actually a dock, he talks about this in the article which is just crazy to me, but there's a dock when you get off of the boat to come to where I live now. And I remember the first time I pulled up to that dock, the walk seemed forever to get to the land. And I now know that the reason this is my mind was creating all these new perceptions and memories and experiences because I could see the ocean that left and the rocks over there and how high

the tide was and a bird flew by and I could see a pasture out in the background and I was taking in all this new information because I'd never been here before. And as a consequence, my perception of time slowed down and now when I get off that dock it's like a 10 second walk and I'm on the land. Why? I've done it 500 times now and so none of it's new. Everything's familiar and our brains, the way they work, they're always trying to conserve energy. We're always trying to move towards

what's familiar, right? So because now my brain's like, I've seen that, I've seen that, I've seen that, this is common, I understand what that is. It's got nothing to lay down a dense memory of. It's all very thin and so the passage of time is very quickly. It's the same reason why when you're on a treadmill and 10 minutes seems like 9 hours, doesn't it? It's because you've done the treadmill before, there's gonna be no new experience, you know exactly what it's gonna feel like, you know exactly how you're gonna be breathing and sweating by that time. So your mind, it's just seems like it's going to take forever, yet it goes like this. Our perception of time is somewhat

perverted by the experiences we have or not have ever had before. And so all of this article is very familiar to me. So I'm going to share something with you, some of the stuff from it that I just love. So there's a new article in Scientific Reports, there's new research in there, and it says, how you perceive the passage of time is related to the amount of new perceptual information you're absorbing at any given time. So when you're young, everything seemed new in those summers, new experiences, new hobbies, new friends, new things you see, all these new experiences, and so it changes your

perception of time. There's a study, and by the see, all these new experiences, and so it changes your perception of time. There's a study... and by the way, time feels longer, not shorter. When something is familiar to us, our brain can process this. It's even like when you meet someone. As you get older and older, you have less dense memories because you have more information already. So that's why, like, if you're an entrepreneur, oftentimes you can get very bored with your business after a while, because there's nothing new to it, right? You haven't created anything new. There's no new way in which you do business. No way. Innovation in business is not just so that you stay competitive, but it's also so you stay fresh, so you stay interested, so that you enjoy it like you did as a child in the summertime. Maybe think about the, it says in

the article, it's great. Think about the first sale you ever made in your life. If you're in sales, you can remember it like it's yesterday, right? That memories, the details of it, but your 500th sale, it's just a blur. Right. And that's why when we meet people, even times like when we were a child, we meet people and would take forever. And now you meet someone. I've met that type of person before.

I've met someone with that career before. I've met a guy from that area before. I've met a lady with that background before. I know somebody with that name already. I've met a guy from that area before. I've met a lady with that background before. I know somebody with that name already and these memories are much more thin. Your first date compared to your 80th date. The memories are just very different. The perception of time is different. Our emotional experience is different. So what am I really saying so far? So far it looks like scientifically if you have a very familiar life, it's going to go

by very quickly. And if you have any sense in your life that life is passing you by, it's true. It's true from two standpoints. Number one, time is running out on you. And two, the things you're doing are so familiar, you're not getting any juice, any dopamine, any anything out of your life anymore. Because the more we do something, the less we get the hit. It's why a drug addict oftentimes you'll meet people that'll tell you they've been on you know whatever drug crystal meth for 10 years and they're like I don't even get high anymore. I don't even get high but I do it out of the habit of doing it because it's it's who I am. It keeps me familiar with myself and often in life if you just keep doing the same thing over and over again you don't get high anymore so that's why it's incumbent upon us to create new

things we do new experiences and they don't have to cost money some of the ones I'm gonna list today that I'm doing do cost some money because I've been blessed to have that in my life but most of the things in life that we really enjoy are simple you didn't have any money when you're a little kid you'd have any resources which you had was things that were new all the time. So there's a new article in Scientific Report says that new perpetual information, the more we absorb, the more we enjoy an experience and the longer it seems to last. So the more your brain has to process, the more it slows time down.

The less your brain has to process, the more it speeds time up and there's just nothing great about it. There's a new article in here that they quote from Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews found that once we reach our 20s, listen to this, the release of dopamine as the result of experiencing new stimuli starts to drop, also causing time to seem like it passes more quickly. So if you want to get back to that part of your life that felt like childhood again, the blissful experiences if you had them when you were a child, you need something they call dense memories, dense memories. And again, this is something I've talked about for 10 years, but now there's validation of it and I appreciate this article as a result.

So you know, that walk that I had on the dock really is reflective of that. The first time I rode a horse, which was not that long ago, I can vividly remember it and it took forever. Now I get on the horse and I kind of ride it, right? And it's sort of familiar. It's not as dense of a memory in my life. One other thing they say in the article that I think is really fascinating is that it also is why in some cases in life for certain tasks, you can't quite estimate exactly how something's going to take, especially something you've done before. So like for example, I, the gentleman who helps me with my horses here has been sick for a while. So I've been cleaning all the stalls, but I've done that a lot. I've cleaned the horse stalls quite a bit. But because I've done it so much, I think it takes

me about five minutes. Right? So the other night I said, I'll be back for dinner. I went down there and I said, I'll be back in 10 minutes. I figured it'd take me five and then I'd get back. But the truth of the matter is it takes me about a half an hour to clean out all the stalls for all of the horses that we have here. But because I've done it so much, I don't have a perception of time because it's something that's just a pattern for me. It's familiar to me. So that's why sometimes you underestimate tasks of how long they're gonna take if it's something you're familiar with, which I thought was a fascinating thing as well. This is really important though, if you're starting to get bored with your business or your career and it's

really why if you don't create new ways you do things and innovate, add a new product, a new strategy, a new script, a new way of teaching something, a new way of approaching it, whatever it might be in your business life, you can become very bored and bored entrepreneurs or bored employees aren't productive and they can actually be dangerous when they get bored because they start to not even do the things they're supposed to do to become successful. So here's the deal. How do you slow the passage of time? So there's a Stanford neuroscientist named David Eagleman and he says that we all have the impression, you know, he's talking about these childhood summers lasted forever, but when you're older the summers go by, like I said more quickly. And he said, that's because your brain's job, this is so fascinating to me, is to build an internal model of the world.

Your brain is locked in silence and darkness inside your skull. And all it's trying to do is understand the structures of the world so it can operate better, also truthfully, so it can conserve energy. Your brain is always trying to conserve energy and not have to work as hard in case it needs to do something else. So when it encounters a surprise, when you encounter a surprise, your brain writes it down and makes a change to your circuitry, literally. But as you go through life, he says, and your brain develops better models of the world, less and less carries

much surprise. That's why you lay down fewer memories as you age. You've seen this situation before, you've met that personality before, you've done that job before, the memories you lay down are much thinner. They're more impoverished. But in contrast, when you're in your childhood, everything's new and so the richness of your memories gives you the impression of increased duration. This show is sponsored by Airbnb. I gotta tell you, I get tired of staying at hotels. I travel a lot in hotels, no offense, but they're getting noisier and noisier and noisier. And a lot of things that used to come with the hotel rooms, like room service and other benefits like that,

they just don't do it anymore or not like they used to. So my last couple of trips, I told my team, let's just stay at an Airbnb. We stayed at an Airbnb and I'll probably never go back again. It was the coolest experience ever. Privacy, luxurious, the space was great, all of it. I loved it. And then when I'm there, I was like, wait a minute, I have a home that simply sits a lot. I could be generating revenue on these places. I wonder how this works. So when I looked into it, I'm like, I'm going to Airbnb my place. So now I'm only staying at Airbnbs when I travel,

but other people are staying at my house as well when I'm gone. It's awesome. I'm generating revenue when I'm not there. So hey, I'm telling you, your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much more at airbnb.ca slash post. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home, and more. Plus, you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it. So your dollar goes a long way. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance.

Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations. Okay, so what's the key then? Here's the key. And you're not going to like this if you're just a habit person. See, remember this as we step back. Human beings are a compositions of habits, patterns and behaviors, and they go through them over and over. They have habitual thoughts, habitual ways they drive to work, habitual conversations, they've got a group of friends that are the same, they watch the same types of TV programs, they get the same political stuff in their feed, and so they continue to do these same things, and it's an odd analogy as someone who's a child of an alcoholic drug addict,

but they get less high off of life, and your composition of patterns. If you want to have a longer life, and I mean this literally, I think you'd probably be happier and physically live longer, but if you want to at least have the perception of a richer life, you've got to get out of the familiar. This is not just proven in my own world experience with all the people I've coached and after 53 years on earth, but now neuroscience is telling you your internal world, your internal experience is flying by. You're getting less dopamine because it's so pattern based and getting humans to change is difficult.

Now here's what people will say when I say this to them, they go, yeah, but I know what I like. I like this particular stake, Rick. You know, I like to do this particular habit or hobby, right? I like these particular types of people. I know what I like. I'm established in my ways and you know what? I'm pretty happy. Yeah, but things are flying by. They're flying by and you're running out of time. I had a friend of

mine just the other day and everyone knows I've had some health issues, you know, some frankly significant and he goes, bro, you know, you're going to have between five and 30 summers left. And it stopped me in my tracks. Five and 30 summers. I'm 53. So if I were blessed, I'd get 30 more great summers. And I know I've had anti-aging people on my show. I know that.

Say you lived 125. Maybe I will. Maybe you will. But healthy, you know what I mean? And maybe I will, maybe science will change where I can live to 125. I don't know. But I actually have already had some significant health scares. Five and thirty summers left. Well, I want those to last as long as they can.

How many more conversations am I going to get to have with my mom? How many more are you going to have if they're still here? How many more actual experiences with my mom? How many more are you gonna have if they're still here? How many more actual experiences with your friends? You know, you say I'm 25 years old, okay, so you have 50 more summers. That's it. It's finite. And I can tell you that if you don't begin the habit of what we're gonna talk about in a second here, you're gonna have a whole lot shorter life in your experience because you're not laying down dense memories. So generally speaking, they say in the article here, do new things, try new things, push yourself to do these new

things, try to create more firsts and more different experiences. Have you heard that before? Me on this show for about a decade. Do that and when you look back, time will seem to have passed more slowly because your memories will be much denser. That will change your perception of what psychologists call retrospective thinking. Then leverage the power of what psychologists call perspective timing. Generally speaking, perspective timing is looking forward to predicting future outcomes, especially regarding time. This is my go-zone. I've been saying this lately.

Everything in personal development tells you to be present and to be more present, including me, but I have also said, I believe you have to be able to be focused on the future as well and look forward to a compelling future. Isn't there something cool that if you know you're gonna go to a concert on a Saturday night that just helps you get through the work week better? Isn't it? Or if you knew you had a vacation coming, isn't it just easier to get the grind done? So although we want to be in the present, we also want to have some focus we're looking forward to in the future. And that's why goal setting and dreaming and envisioning your future life and

spending time on that is so critical to a rich life. Turns out scientifically they recommend here, if you're going on vacation in a month, put the date on your calendar, stick a note on the fridge, looking forward will make the intervening days feel like they take longer and make the anticipation a little sweeter. So it turns out that the anticipation of a future event actually slows down time as well. As a kid, weren't you looking forward to those summers?

Remember, I remember how upset you were when you had to go back to school when they ended, right? So if you have things to look forward to in your life, turns out that slows down the perception of time because of anticipation. So doing new things. And by the way, don't go on vacation at the same darn place. Well, we love the blah, blah, blah resort. Okay.

You've done that one. Now I'm going to be honest with you. I'm so crazy about this topic. I've probably taken it to the extreme in my life. Like we've moved a lot. We've lived in many different places. And about every time we move people, isn't this the best place?

And I'm like, yeah, but after a while I've been there and I want to experience something new. So I'm the same way with restaurants. There are restaurants I love to go to, but I've been there. Like I get it, but it's not as rich as an experience as it was the first time. I actually, there's a great restaurant here where we live and it's my favorite restaurant probably, but I gotta be honest with you, I brought people there recently and like, yeah, it was really good. I'm like, no, it's the best. But if I actually based it on the experience I just had, truth is,

it's good. I'm still going off of the first experience. Why? Because it was a dense memory. It was amazing. It was new. It was incredible. You know I'm right about this, by the way. You know I'm right about it. So the first time was like, oh my gosh, I've never had food like this in my life, the service. But the truth is, the 18th time I've been there, it's really good. But it's not what I remember, but I keep saying it is to everybody I bring there because I'm going off the first dense memory. Does that make sense? So try new things, go to new places, do new stuff. I'm gonna go through some specific things in a second. And so it says about, you know, having the anticipation of life really matters as well. Eagleman also says doing new

things or just doing the simplest things a little differently, like taking a different route to work, rearranging your office, or even just brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand. I think I covered this on about 15 podcasts ago will make you seem as though you're extending your time a bit because you're forcing your brain off its hamster wheel of doing things a particular way every day. And so they say this at the end, since time is your most valuable resource, why wouldn't you want to make it seem to last as long as possible? Okay, so how do we do this? Well,

I'll tell you, I'm crazy now about creating new experiences and doing new things. And let me be candid with you, as not my personality. I don't like surprises. At least I think I don't. I don't like to do things I'm not good at. I'm 53. I know I like to golf. I know I like to lift weights. I know I love comedy. I know I love good food, good glass of wine, good cigar. I know what I like. And I kind of know the types of people that I like. I also know my life feels like it's passing me by. It's flying by. And I have a really good, blessed life.

I have the resources to do things that I'm very fortunate to be able to do. And so these decisions I've made the last decade to create change and variety in my life is not easy for me. In fact, if I relate to you, if you're saying, man, I just don't want to, don't need to. I promise you, if you do the things we're about to talk about for a few minutes here, you'll have a richer life. It will seem to last longer and it may even last longer. I do crazy things like brush my teeth with the other hand. I mean that's a simple thing right but I also have tried a bunch of new things. So for example, I am the real I learned to ride horses the last three or four years. I have a bad back. I had every reason in the world not to do it, right? I got a bad back. I have

other hobbies that I enjoy. It's expensive hobby. I'm no good at it, but man is it one of the most therapeutic things I've ever done in my life. I find myself on YouTube learning new ways to saddle a horse, bridle a horse, lunge a horse, train a horse, new strategies of how to help feed them, new things about their feet. The amount of things I've learned the last three or four years that I know about horses and riding them and caring for them and having the right people around them

and how good they are for my soul and my spirit is incredible. Does it take time away from other things I like to do? Yeah, but you know what? This has been the longest summer I've had since I was a little boy and I think those horses are part of it. I think this new place is part of it. I think new books I'm reading. I'll give you something I'm doing now. I've never read a fiction book since I got out of high school. I always read non-fiction. I read business, personal development books. I don't read fiction books. I've always said, that's a waste of time. I don't want to read fake stuff, right? I'm reading some fiction books now and it's interesting to me. I'm fishing. I am not your typical personality type to fish, right? Like I don't like just sitting there drinking a beer,

throwing a line out, you know. I'm an aggressive dude. I'd rather go hit the weights really hard for an hour, you know, and do something intense or competitive and I'm certainly not gonna be a competitive fisherman. But you know what? I've started to enjoy it a great deal. Time passes very slowly. I've learned a bunch. I'm growing. I'm almost like a kid again, you know, and I take really long walks and that's something I've never done. I always ran all the time. Well, I love walking. I love being outdoors and experiencing things and so I've made new friends and not all of them are the same types of people

I've always hung around. All of these things are slowing the passage of time. Hey guys, you're busy just like I am and one of the things that goes by the wayside is all the home maintenance stuff you're supposed to be focusing on and let me tell you one of the things you don't want to mess up which is your gutters or leaves getting in there. I have to tell you, well I messed up really, really bad when I owned a house in Idaho where I did not clean my rain gutters for an extended period of time and then a big storm hit and then guess what? Blew out all of my gutters I had a roof leak and all of that could have been prevented if I just had some pros working on my home maintenance Your permanent solution to clog gutters is leaf filter Every installation comes with free inspection an estimate and a lifetime guarantee

Protect your home and never clean out gutters again with leaf filter america's Number one gutter protection system schedule your free inspection and get up to 30% off your entire purchase at leaffilter.com. That's a free inspection and up to 30% off at leaffilter.com. See representative warranty for details. Promotion is 20% off plus a 10% senior or military discount. One discount per household. So let me ask you a question. Could you go on a new place on vacation? Could you start a new hobby? Learn a new language? Switch the coffee shop that you go to. Switch the location you go to. Switch the TV programs that you watch, right? Could you start to listen to something that you've never listened to before?

Maybe this is the first time you've listened to personal development. Start to work on that. Maybe it's something that you want to grow or an area of understanding. I've got a very, very good friend right now who's completely learning to speak Spanish. By the way, on Babbel, no joke, but they're learning to speak Spanish and they're learning something new. Change your routine. My goal is that every year I have two brand new crazy experiences. They don't need to cost money, but two crazy

brand new experiences every single year. And I'm forcing myself to do it. Most people have a bucket list. I've got a effort list because I don't want to do most of these things. A bucket list is like, man, I'm dying to go see Paris. Truth is, guys, I've never traveled that much. I'm not dying to go see a lot of different places, but I'm going because I want to slow the passage of time. I want at the end of my life to look back and say, I maxed out my life. I got all the juice out of my life. I tried new things. I experienced new things. I'm addicted to the expansion of my being and growing doesn't always need to be your company or your business or your bank account. Growing can be your memory bank. Growing can be your emotions. Growing can be new things you do, right? Growing, you could change what time you get up in the morning.

You know, I have a really great friend who's always been a late riser. I'm like, brother, we got to start shaving some hours off. Mornings are amazing. Seeing a sunrise is incredible. He's like, no, bro, I'm a sunset. I go, I know you love sunsets, but do you remember most of them anymore? Like, truly, bro, like you remember them? He goes, nah, nah, you know, I mean, I go, hey, it's not that you've seen one sunset. You've seen them all. They're all beautiful. But I said, I promise you, you need to see some sunrises. And so we worked on it. Now he's like, bro, man, I get up, have my cup of coffee. Now he's a dude. So just stay with me. He's like, I like my cigar. I got a good man, a morning cigar and a coffee. Watch in the sun come up. Wow. The guy's 60 years old, right? Slowing the passage of time. Here's what he tells me. This is before I read all of this. Here's what he tells me. This is before I read all of this.

Here's what he tells me. He goes, dude, my days last forever. I go, well, crap, you got three more hours in the morning now. He goes, no, but I go to bed two hours earlier, but the day seems so much longer. And now there's validation. Neuroscience tells us that's because he's laying down dense memories instead of these thin ones at the same sunset, the same stuff, right? Same life, different day. Even if you like it, I got to tell you about these

buddies that play golf six days a week. They've been doing it for 30 years, right? They're retired and I know they love golf, but they don't look as happy doing it as they did when they first retired because they do it every day. I mean, how many of the same putt can you have? Same drive, same golf course, same guys, same conversations. You know it doesn't juice you like it used to. Think about that in golf. If you're a golfer, first birdie you ever made, what about the 80th? Do you remember it? First par you ever, if you don't make birds, first par you ever made. Do you remember it? What about your 16th par? You don't remember it, First par you ever, if you don't make birds, first par you ever made, do you remember it? What about your 16th par?

You don't remember it, right? So I'm not saying don't do things you love, but I'm saying, man, it's, you're doing it because it's you. You're familiar with the habit of you. You're familiar with you. You're doing an impression of you. And that's what you're gonna get out of this life. Or you could get some new sunsets, or you could learn to ride sunsets or you could learn to ride horses or you could learn a new

language or you could begin a new hobby or you could begin to learn about trees or whatever. Here's the other thing I do now. I'll write this down. I've worked on my sensory acuity so I force myself to notice things when I'm doing things. So it's not autopilot. I look for little things like this is corny but when I'm doing things. So it's not autopilot. I look for little things like this is corny, but when I'm taking my walks, I'll pick a leaf and I'll look at a leaf and the contour of it and the lines in it and how it's different than another one. You go, that's just, it's not, it slows the passage of time. It gives me peace.

It focuses me to shrink my area of focus. So not just the broad focus, I'll shrink it and get in on one thing, create a new experience. It's a new little line in my life that's brand new for me. There's all these things that we just, we filter them out because we're familiar. So you either need to do unfamiliar things or look at familiar things in a more microcosm focused way, right? Where you delineate small things. I've walked by this tree many times, but today I'm picking out this leaf. I, it may be that you're in a park that you've been in before and just stop and

like watch something you've not seen before. Allow yourself to feel the breeze on your face. Slow the passage of time. Slow things down or do new things. And so the big thing for me has been two new experiences a year. Two. They could be something that costs money or something that's not. I highly recommend right now you say, what are my two experiences the next 12 months that I've never done before? Place that you're going to go, person you're going to meet, something you're going to learn, new hobby you're going to start, something you're going to begin to read, something you allow yourself to feel. Maybe for the first time in your life you're going to pursue God more deeply. Maybe you've always been a believer of a particular faith, but you've never really gone deep on it, and this year is going to be the year where you really read your scriptures,

or take some classes on it, or go to retreat about it year where you really read your scriptures or take some classes on it or go to retreat about it. Maybe you want to learn yoga or stretch, maybe you want to lift weights for the first time, maybe you're going to start walking, maybe you're going to start running, maybe you're going to do an Ironman, maybe you're going to do a 5k, maybe you're going to go see someplace and isn't it cool that you have the anticipation of doing it as we said earlier. So I don't know how many summers you have left, but I now know that your life lasts longer perceptually and probably literally if we're out of our patterns of our life.

And I believe you were born to have a beautiful life. I believe you were born to do something great with your life. Maybe it's a new friend. Maybe it's a new friend. Maybe it's a new relationship. Maybe it's a decision not to stay in one that's no longer serving you. Maybe it's to have this conversation with your significant other and say let's create some new experiences together. Maybe it's something spicy in that department that you've not done before.

Maybe it's somewhere you go, somewhere you meet, something you feel, something you do, somebody you serve. And man, I'm telling you, your life will begin to have those endless summers. Not everything in life needs to fly by. Not everything in life needs to be familiar. And now we have proof that it extends our lives. So I wanted to share this with you today. What are your two experiences for the next 12 months? What's the new thing? Get excited about it. Have some anticipation about it. And as you're doing it, take it all in.

And if you're doing something familiar, find the unfamiliar in doing it. Innovate, brush your teeth with a different hand. Look at that leaf a little bit differently, right? Notice, open up your sensory acuity. What are you hearing that you didn't hear before? What are you feeling that you didn't feel before? What are you feeling that you didn't feel before? What are you seeing that you didn't see before? Allow those new senses to create a new experience in the familiar so you can get a little bit more out of your life

and slow this life down so you have those summers like you did when you were a little child. All right, God bless you everybody. I hope today helped you. If it did, share this with somebody that it matters to or that you think it would matter to. And max out your life. God bless you.