In the early days of basketball, before there was a shot clock, a team winning 2-0 could technically hold the ball and keep it away from the other team until the end of the game. It would have been a very boring game, which is why the shot clock was invented, requiring each team to shoot the ball within a certain period of time or lose possession.
Still, to this day, the team in the lead near the end of the game often adopts the strategy of using up as much time as possible on the other team. The less time on the clock, the less time the other team has to score.
Adultitis utilizes a similar game plan. It aims to run out the clock on you by busying you with distractions that don’t matter, minimizing the impact you can make with your one precious life.
Here are just a few of the ways Adultitis “runs out the clock” on you…
- Endless scrolling on social media, turning you into a junkie searching for dopamine hits fueled by humor, rage, and surprising facts about what that long-forgotten child star from the 80s is up to now.
- Binge-watching Netflix, or any of the dozens of other streaming services that are ready to serve up something else you might like before the credits of the show you’re currently watching are over.
- Collecting more and more stuff that needs to be cleaned, serviced, organized, and maintained, costing you more and more time.
- Staying in a soul-sucking job just for the benefits, or because you’re paralyzed by fear, convinced you won’t be able to find anything better.
- Staying longer at work or behind the computer screen, finishing up just “one more thing” before returning home late to your family. Again.
- Chasing conspiracy theories or consuming a never-ending stream of news under the guise of “staying informed,” instead of focusing on things you can actually control.
- Striving for perfection in things that won’t matter when you’re dead. The perfectly manicured yard. A house with everything in its place. A complete collection of (fill in the blank).
- Debating politics (and religion) online and crafting witty one-liners to one-up strangers on the internet and prove them wrong, once and for all.
- Taking that extra brownie, telling yourself the lie that you’ll start eating better tomorrow.
- Mired in jealousy and comparison, ever-striving to be like someone else rather than playing your own game.
- Disrupting any quiet moments that could possibly lead to a profound insight about the direction of your life with noise and trivial pursuits of any sort.
- Distracting you an endless parade of urgent things while the most important things pass right under your nose every single day.
Tick…tick…tick…
These are just few of the many ways Adultitis uses to milk the clock and hasten your path to the grave, keeping you from the people you love most and from accomplishing that for which you were born.
You’re probably a little uncomfortable because I just called out at least one thing that hits a little too close to home. (If it helps, I also called myself out in the process.)
What I’m really trying to call out is Adultitis, by shedding light on its strategy.
Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
You don’t need to convince me that most of these things in moderation are relatively harmless. It’s true. But the margin between healthy and unhealthy is slim. Without our mindfulness, they do take our time away from other, more worthwhile pursuits that can make our lives, relationships, and community better.
And that’s exactly the point. They say if the devil can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy.
You are here for a reason. You have been given a mission no one else can accomplish. The world has a chance to be a little bit better because you were in it.
But not if you’re distracted.
Not if Adultitis runs out the clock on you.
You only have so much time to make memories with your kids. You have a finite number of family vacations, dinners with friends, date nights with your spouse, bedtime stories to read, and beautiful spring days to enjoy. You only have so many paintings to paint, pies to bake, songs to compose, cards to send, hats to knit, and wooden toys to build.
Every minute you spend on something that doesn’t matter is one left forever unspent on something that does.
Not counting sleep, you only get about one thousand of these minutes a day.
While you waste them on TikTok, time is running out.
Tick tock.