Going Through the Good Old Days
Time Space Warp #74
Hey—It’s Toffer.
“The good old days” weren’t obviously good while they were happening.
Estimated read time: 3 minutes
They were stressful. Uncertain. Uncomfortable. Money was tight. You were guessing.
So why do those same periods change later?
I don’t think it’s nostalgia. It’s something else.
Hard seasons leave clearer memories. When things are easy, days blur together. When things are difficult, you notice details. You remember conversations. Decisions. How it felt.
That’s also why growth is almost always paired with discomfort. We call them growing pains. You don’t expand without resistance.
One way to see this is through patterns. First you recognize patterns. Then you learn how to work with them. Eventually, you create your own.
Most people apply this to habits or behavior. Apply it to time instead.
Life moves in seasons.
There are periods where your job is to learn. Periods where you’re tested. Periods where you consolidate what you’ve built. Periods where rest matters more than output.
A lot of frustration comes from misreading the season you’re in.
People want ease during periods that require effort. They want clarity during periods meant for exploration. They want results during periods meant for groundwork. When expectations don’t match the season, frustration follows.
That’s when people think something is wrong.
But they’re just early. Or out of sync. Or in a phase that doesn’t reward them.
When you look back years later, those seasons stand out because they shaped you. They forced decisions. They demanded tradeoffs. They asked more of you than you knew you could give.
That stays.
Later seasons might be smoother. Better organized. But they don’t mark you the same way. You don’t remember them as vividly.
This is where pattern creation becomes important.
Once you can see the season clearly, you can stop fighting it. You make different choices. You create things that support what the season asks, instead of chasing what looks appealing from the outside.
That’s how you move from reacting to time to working with it.
And eventually, you realize why certain chapters become “the good old days.” The ones that asked something of you. You showed up.
If you’re in a hard stretch right now, go through it as if you’re already looking back.
Your Friend in Time,
Toffer