Today, I’m going to show you how to change your perception of time—so you can work and live with more intention, and find more meaning and fulfilment in everything you do.

By doing so, you will be able to live and work with more intention, fundamentally influencing how you experience life and work.

Unfortunately, most people today have a distorted perception of time. Their psychological timescale is either too fast or too slow.

They relentlessly and unintentionally chase "every shiny new object", making life rush by in a blur.

Or they are stuck on autopilot, making time a treadmill: endless, unfulfilling, and exhausting.

It's a trap either way because life or work can’t stretch into vivid, memorable, and meaningful moments and actions.

Psychological time shapes your experience like water in a river—rushing whitewater in flow, stagnant pools in boredom.

When we’re deeply engaged—whether in a creative endeavour or an exciting experience—time seems to rush by, much like a river’s whitewater.

On the other hand, moments of boredom or monotony can feel slow and stretched out, like stagnant pools where the water barely moves.

This is what we refer to as a psychological timescale. It's how we perceive time, influenced by our emotions, focus, and engagement. It makes time stretch or shrink.

To live and work with purpose, meaning, and enjoyment, you need a balance.

The two fundamental questions we’ll explore today:
• Urgency or patience? Or both? And how can they be balanced?
• Embracing the present or thinking beyond ourselves? Or both? How?

First, let's examine how the psychological timescale works to lay the foundation for our analysis.

Fixed vs. Fluid: Understanding the Psychological Timescale

Compared to other timescales—cosmic, geological, historical—our psychological timescale is fluid. Here are a few examples to help you understand this crucial distinction:

• A day on Earth (approximately 24 hours) is based on the planet's rotation around its axis—fixed and consistent.
• The speed of light in a vacuum defines an unwavering timescale for light to travel a given distance.
• Pulsars emit radio waves at precise, fixed intervals, making them natural cosmic clocks.
• Circadian rhythms in organisms regulate sleep-wake cycles, typically on a 24-hour rhythm.

These are all fixed timescales.

But then, consider these situations:
• Binge-watching a show until 2 AM makes time fly, but the next morning’s sluggishness reminds you of biological reality.
• Boredom stretches minutes into hours, while creative flow compresses them into a blink.
• Stress and deadlines make a day feel like a sprint, even when the clock says otherwise.
• As you age, routine experiences create fewer novel memories, making time feel faster.
• Mindfulness and meditation slow down your experience of time, making moments richer and longer.

Even though psychological time is subjective, its effects can be judged objectively. Some perceptions clearly energise and fulfil us, while others drain and stagnate.

Staying on autopilot? Time passes, and you remain the same. But when you use psychological time as a compass, not just a clock, you break out of the blur.

The Urgency Trap: Mistaking Busyness for Progress

Most people live like firefighters—constantly putting out the next blaze. They’re stuck in a cycle of endless urgency: deadlines, emails, pings, and meetings that feel like they’ll combust if not handled now.

It’s an addiction to feeling important. Urgency triggers a dopamine surge—like checking notifications or sprinting to the next finish line. But here’s the truth: urgency doesn’t always equal importance.

In real life, it’s like rushing to leave the house on time, only to realise you forgot your keys, your phone, and half your sanity in the process. At work, it’s like a manager who’s always in crisis mode, too busy with emergencies to fix the root problems. And for solopreneurs, it’s like chasing client deadlines so aggressively that you never build the systems you need to truly step away. You become a hamster on a wheel—faster and faster, but stuck in the same cage.

Here’s what most people miss: urgency is a trap. It hijacks your attention, turning every task into a false fire drill. And the longer you live there, the harder it is to see what actually matters.

That’s the difference between reactivity and control. Between spinning your wheels and building something that lasts.

The Hidden Costs of Urgency: Health, Creativity, and Connection

People think staying in constant motion is a sign of success. Like a Formula 1 driver, always revving the engine. But living in perpetual urgency comes with a silent toll that builds over time:

• On your health: Constant urgency floods you with cortisol. Sleep gets lighter, digestion falters, and burnout lurks just around the corner. It’s like trying to run a marathon at sprint speed—no one can keep that up.
• On your creativity: Urgency kills spaciousness. In fight-or-flight, ideas can’t breathe. You’re stuck reacting, not creating.
• On your relationships: Urgency turns you into a ghost. Physically present, but mentally somewhere else—like a friend who’s always checking their phone while you’re talking.

For solopreneurs, it’s even more dangerous. You started this path for freedom and impact. Yet the urgency trap flips that upside down—chaining you to your work, not liberating you. You forget why you started in the first place.

So ask yourself: Are you really making progress, or just staying busy? True growth happens when you trade constant motion for deliberate movement—when you slow down enough to hear what truly matters.

The Past and Future Trap: Balancing the Timescales

Most people live stuck in a time warp they don’t even notice. They’re either glued to the past—rehashing old mistakes and missed chances—or racing towards a future that’s always just out of reach.

But living at the extremes of time is another trap. You need your past, your present, and your future—each in balance:

• The past is your roots. It grounds you, gives you context, and shapes your story. But if those roots strangle your growth, you stay stuck.
• The present is your trunk. It’s where life actually happens—decisions, action, experience.
• The future is your canopy. Your vision, possibilities, and bigger purpose. Without it, you’re a tree in a pot—safe, but stunted.

For solopreneurs, this matters even more. If you’re too focused on a past failure, you’ll hesitate to take risks today. If you’re always chasing the future, you’ll skip the work that builds real momentum.

The key is to weave them together. Learn from your past. Show up in your present. And plant seeds for a future that inspires you.

The Universe and Deep Time: Perspective Beyond the Everyday

Most people are trapped in a narrow window of time—days, weeks, maybe a few years ahead. But when you zoom out to the cosmic scale, you see how tiny our worries really are.

Imagine Earth’s 4.5-billion-year history compressed into a single year. Humans don’t even show up until the last few seconds before midnight. That’s how small we are in the grand scheme—and how powerful it is to remember.

At work, the next deadline can feel like life or death. For solopreneurs, the next launch can feel like it will make or break you. But seen against the backdrop of deep time, you realise: this is just one chapter in a much bigger story.

Perspective doesn’t dismiss your ambitions. It grounds them. Your work and life have meaning because they’re a fleeting spark in the endless expanse.

Returning to Ground: Daily Practices for Balance and Focus

Returning from the vastness of deep time doesn’t mean dismissing the daily grind—it means tending to it with a new sense of calm and clarity. Here’s how to weave cosmic perspective back into your everyday life:

• Breathe more slowly when urgency hits. Let stillness become your default response.
• Pause before each decision. Ask: “Will this matter in five years?”
• Name your fears aloud. Give them form so they lose power.
• Set one intention each morning. Let it steer your attention.
• Reflect on one past success each day. Use it as a launchpad, not a resting place.
• Journal at night about what still feels urgent—then decide if it’s truly important.
• Make one choice each day in service of your future self.
• Maintain a weekly review ritual. Tie up the past, clear space for the present.
• Seek vastness regularly. Walk under the night sky, read about deep time, and remember: your small work can still leave a lasting mark.

Bringing It All Together: Urgency, Patience, Presence, and Possibility

So, urgency or patience? Embrace both. Let urgency sharpen your focus, but let patience guide your direction. Reactivity is not progress. Only deliberate movement gets you closer to what truly matters.

And what about the present or the future? Live in the present fully—it’s the only place you can take action. But let the future pull you forward. Let it be your compass, not your distraction.

When you balance urgency with patience, and presence with possibility, you move from surviving to creating. You design your work—and your life—with intention. That’s how you escape the traps, and that’s how you start leaving your mark.

What’s next?

It’s all about mindset and strategy. As ancient Greek and Roman philosophers taught, we can only control our minds, thoughts, and actions. Focusing on this can help you avoid unnecessary struggle, get unstuck, and move forward faster.

If you need guidance getting unstuck and making crucial mindset shifts, I can help, especially if

• you want to quit your 9-5 job and create your one-person business, but you struggle to pivot (and then regret not making the leap)

• you are a currently struggling introverted (or not) solopreneur (stuck in failure, regret and a flawed mindset that doesn’t serve you)

This is why I created the new 1-hour short video course, “5 Game-Changing Mindset Shifts For Success.” In this video course, I show you how to make the 5 essential mindset shifts to overcome your self-blockages as a solopreneur and thrive.

This is what you will learn and practice:

• The Power of Mindset

• The 5 Most Problematic Mindset Flaws

• How to overcome the Imposter Syndrome (versus self-doubt)

• How to embrace failure as a learning tool (versus fear of failure)

• How to cultivate a Growth Mindset (versus a static fixed mindset)

• How to boost your positivity (versus the negativity, which doesn't serve you)

• How to set healthy boundaries (versus being a people pleaser at work and life in general)

PLUS, you get a free PDF guide with 5 unconventional yet proven and effective exercises for practising the mindset shifts and preventing relapse.

Unlock the course below.

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