The Temporal Prime Directive

Star Trek again – one of the rules of the Federation of Planets designed to prevent interference with the ‘timeline’ – in effect: Don’t go back in time and change things you didn’t like because that will probably cause you to cease to exist.

Makes a lot of sense logically and existentially.

Think about your personal ‘timeline’.

If you had done something differently, even a small thing like leaving on a journey 10 minutes later than you did, would you be in exactly the same place and exactly the same person you are now?

No, you wouldn’t. You’d be at least slightly different because you’d have had a different experience.

I’m sure you can think of bigger things when you go down the ‘If only I’d. . . .’ trail.

The possibilities for anyone’s life are boundless!

In some ways though you and I can go back in time.

We can travel back in time in our memory time machine and we can, at least in our conscious mind, change things.

We can change our memories.

We can change the neural pathways that hold them. Whether memories can be completely changed in the subconscious mind and the Akashic Records that store all our choices is unclear, but we do know that from time to time we ‘remember’ things differently.

But changing our memories doesn’t change our timeline.

You and I are still who we are, where we are in life now, at this particular step on our Way.

So what has this to do with the ‘Temporal Prime Directive’?

Here’s the thing.

Procrastination, frustration, traffic jams, obstacles, delays, hold ups, etc. etc. Things that ‘get in our way’.

Patience, timing, scheduling, ‘time management’, the ‘right’ time, expectation and anything like these.

What effect do all of these have on our personal timeline, even on a day to day basis?

And what about external factors that influence what we do, the weather, other people needing our time, special events and such like?

Just think about now.

You’ve stopped to read this; how would your day be different if you hadn’t?

Some people say that there is no such thing as time management but maybe there is, it’s all a question of meaning.

Of course, we can’t manage time itself because it doesn’t exist, but can we manage our timeline?

Why do we procrastinate, put things off, not ‘feel’ like doing something now?

Why do we get impatient or frustrated that something isn’t happening ‘now’ when we ‘want’ it to?

Is this under our control – or not?

Perhaps we feel ‘put off’ doing something ‘now’ for a reason.

Perhaps something isn’t happening for us ‘now’ for a reason.

Should we ‘go with the flow’ and wait, follow our ‘gut’ and not do something now or should we ignore our intuition, if that’s what it is’ and do it now anyway?

You and I have goals and ambitions, dreams and visions of who we want to be further along our personal timelines

What we have to consider about ‘managing’ this timeline is what the effect will be of doing or not doing something, taking or not taking some particular action ‘now’, ‘right now’.

We never hear the expression ‘wrong now’ but sometimes, maybe often ‘wrong now’ is correct.

Sometimes it is wrong to do that thing or have that event happen ‘now’.

Doing it ‘right now’ even when our gut is telling us not to, is often the wrong decision!

‘Now’ is not always right.

How do we know?

The short answer is that we don’t – but think about this.

You and I have frequently been put under pressure to ‘get things done’ and to ‘take action now’ but if we ‘don’t feel like’ taking that action or doing that thing then, will we do it to the best of our ability?

Wouldn’t it be better to wait until we feel the ‘time is right’?

It depends – back to the timeline.

If you have a ‘plan’ to achieve your goals that involves dates and time and some type of precedence (A has to be done before you can do B etc.) then it’s straightforward to take a project management approach to identify a ‘deadline’ – the latest time you can start something so that it will be done ‘in time’ for whatever follows.

That’s how you ‘manage your timeline’ and once your ‘plan’ does look like that it can be surprising how much easier ‘getting stuff done’ becomes.

If you know that you ‘have’ to do something today or the whole plan falls apart, then it seems to prevent those feelings of inertia and consequent anxiety about doing stuff.

But of course, it doesn’t always work like that, especially when external forces come into play and we either have to go with the flow and rework our plan.

The thing is that in the first place what your gut or your intuition is telling you is right. If it isn’t time for you to do something or for something to happen than it isn’t; and interfering with that will undoubtedly disrupt your timeline – things will turn out differently.

Your personal timeline is an overview of your life., where it’s going depends on the decisions and choices you have already made, and your ‘future’ already exists further along the line.

Change your decisions and choices or make new ones – you change your timeline and change your life.

Go with the flow.