The power of an atomic second
Time is relative as Einstein said and maybe therefore some people assume that time goes by quicker the older they get and maybe in all your daily struggles, you had the chance to look back on decisions you once made that changed your life. This might be not that interesting at first because you probably chose your studies and the company you work at on your own and everything seems linear. So case closed?
Not that fast. Let's extend this thought experiment a little bit and have a look at the decisions other people made that directly influenced your life. Your birth and early childhood are (quite important decisions of someone else) not that interesting for now because at that age you didn't really have the chance to decide otherwise.
There is very interesting documentation about the training of German policemen and in one of those episodes, the contestants have to run 10 kilometres in a certain period. One woman is struggling and lacking in this goal. A colleague had already finished and decided to run back and motivate her for the final 500 meters. And with only 4 seconds left on the clock she stays under the time limit and can process her education to become a policewoman. Three years later she graduated.
This decision of the man is different to your parents deciding to have another child because they know what's coming up and the time investment and influence are planned ahead. For a guy to run back and support someone for a couple of minutes doesn't influence him much in that period nor will it in three years. Still is he one of the many reasons that this woman finished her education.
You might have life decisions that you don't fully support and look back to. Planning life ahead linear is quite a good idea, but at most important times we had people close by who supported us or invested little to help us achieve big.
The woman greets the elderly couple and helps them carry the groceries. The man buying flowers in the shopping mall for the woman who had been looking at them for quite some time or the child getting a shirt from his favourite player.
Countless people supported your way with atomic decisions that took them only seconds but influenced your life completely.
Maybe it's time to use these atomic seconds and upcoming decisions to support people close and far from us. With investments at a minimum and potential results at large, there is nothing that can go wrong.
