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Our video for the week is about time and how our view of it affects who we are and how we live.
Psychologist and Stanford professor Philip Zimbardo says that the extent to which we have the six “time perspectives” controls every decision we make.
In his TEDTalk, entitled “Philip Zimbardo prescribes a healthy take on time,” he details these six “TP”s are:
- Past – Focus on Positives
- Past – Focus on Negatives
- Present – Hedonism
- Present – Fatalism
- Future – Life-Goal Oriented
- Future – Transcendental: Life after Death of the Mortal Body
Zimbardo says we can learn to shift from one perspective to another, depending on the needs of the situation, and that the “optimal time perspective” includes:
“High on Past-Positive. Moderately high on Future. And moderate on Present-Hedonism. And always low on Past-Negative and Present-Fatalism.
So the optimal temporal mix is what you get from the past — Past-Positive give you roots. You connect your family, identity and yourself. What you get from the Future is wings to soar to new destinations, new challenges. What you get from the Present-Hedonism is the energy, the energy to explore yourself, places, people, sensuality.”
I love the RSAnimate videos! The talk is interesting in itself, but the animation highlights the main points and makes it much more viewer-friendly.
