Life can pass us by pretty quickly if we’re not careful.

Before you know it, 25 years can have gone in the blink of an eye.

We are left with whispers of conversations, half remembered events and dreams that were either fulfilled or left floating on the winds of time.

We go to all sorts of lengths to slow time down: fitting as much as we can into a day; doing nothing for days; meditation, religion, alcohol, drugs, work.

When we stop and look back, what do we see?

Wealth, possessions, careers, status, family, friends, loved ones?

Things that we claim are important to us and other things that we see as necessary to support those things that are important to us.

Yet we spend much of our time doing those things that we instinctively know are not the most important in our lives.

We put huge efforts into developing and pursuing a career to support our family and provide us with a sense of achievement.

The flip side of this is that we then find ourselves slaves to the system or organisation that supports our career.

Slowly, but surely, we become compromised in order to maintain our status within the organisation.

We lose something of ourselves each time this happens. We bury the feelings of discontent that this arouses in us, concentrating more on our sales targets or next content marketing seminar.

The days and months slip by, we strive ever harder to catch up with our competitors, putting in longer hours, weekends at home, working our holidays.

The faster we run, the less time we have. And on it goes.

Most of us will never wake up from the trance. We slowly shrivel our souls until we are either burnt out or fully paid up members of the corporate beast that strips us of our humanity in the name of business.

Some of us will break free.

Slowly, we will realise that other humans are not put here on the planet as a means of giving us what we want.

They are separate individuals, each capable of achieving amazing things if given the right encouragement and opportunity.

We will understand that we are all the same deep down – we have hopes, fears, dreams, talents, curiosity, knowledge and doubt.

Once we understand and appreciate this connectedness between us all, we may begin to actively seek connections with others.

Not in the sterile world of social media or LinkedIn.

But in the real world of receptionists, call centre staff and shop workers – those who provide a service that we hardly ever notice or, if we do, it is only to complain about it when it doesn’t do what we expect it to do.

Connecting with our fellow humans in a way that is memorable to each other is what lifts us out of the restrictions of space and time and into a world of meaning, rather than things.