Never Retire: Time Flies As You Get Older—Here's How To Stop It

Why your brain needs more than just a change of basic scenery

I don’t think a weekly phone call home has gone by in the last decade—at least—where my mother hasn’t referred to time flying by.

The older you get, the more time flies. I just don’t know where the days go.

And so on and so forth.

It’s one of those things people say without really questioning it, as if the speed of time is fixed and inevitable. But it’s not.

If you’re new here, Never Retire is about staying curious, vibrant and engaged no matter how old you are—subscribe free or paid to join the ride.

Never Retire exists because I’ve watched too many people—people who came before me—fall into comfortable routines.

Some end up in lifeless stagnation. Every day looks the same. Anxiety shrinks their world until even a trip across town feels like a hassle.

Others live in what I call earned comfort. They worked and worked, now they’re “comfortable in life”—presumably because of that work—so the goal becomes to preserve that comfort.

I came to reject both versions, especially the first. To remain alive, engaged, and vibrant, you have to be curious and willing to completely change what you know so you can grow, adapt, and keep yourself sharp.

That’s why, while Never Retire started as a necessity, it became a choice—the preferred choice as it turns out. And moving to Spain was the ultimate way to challenge myself out of a comfortable situation.

It calls you to challenge yourself out of comfortable situations and do what’s necessary to keep your body and mind on their toes. So that—like with a good workout routine—they’re constantly in a healthy and productive state of stress and repair. They grow and evolve rather than go through the motions in what is ultimately a familiar and stagnant state.

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Why This Article Nails It

This Psychology Today article might be the best-ever distillation of what we talk about here in Never Retire. It says it all in the context of a cliché you’ve heard your whole life —time flies—and why it seems to go even faster as you get older.

It does… because—according to neuroscience—you let it.

…time perception is not just about the ticking of the clock but a construct of the brain. Turns out, our perception of time is malleable and within our control. It’s shaped by how we choose to experience the days, hours, and moments of our lives. So what exactly determines whether a moment lingers or disappears?

One factor relates to memory density. When we encounter novel experiences, our brains record more details that, in retrospect, make time feel elongated. This explains why childhood summers felt endless. Our brains were constantly encoding fresh, first-time memories. Our adult experiences that are now routine and familiar don’t embed in our brain in the same way as they did in our youth, resulting in fewer distinct memories and reinforcing a perception that time is speeding by.

See me talk more about this article and Never Retire newsletter story in the Friki de Bici YouTube video below.

What This Means in Real Life

The science backs up what I’ve felt since I left Los Angeles. That first month in Valencia? It felt like a year. Every day was packed with new things and—even more so—waiting for new things to happen. By summer, the days were slipping by faster— still good, but more familiar, less mentally demanding with most of the settling in, administrative tasks, and a trip back to the United States out of the way.

This isn’t about moving abroad (though that’s one extreme way to do it). It’s about recognizing that novelty slows time. Familiarity and the wrong kind of comfort in your routine speeds it up.

The truth is, small tweaks do matter—taking a different route home, trying a new place for coffee, joining a class you know nothing about. They’re the daily training reps that keep your mind agile. But they work best when they’re part of something bigger and more deliberate.

For me, moving abroad was the extreme expression of this. At 50, I didn’t just change my surroundings—I gave my brain a new operating system. A different language. New social codes. Unfamiliar streets. Even buying groceries or mailing a package became a problem to solve. Every day demands focus, quick thinking, and flexibility.

Language has been the most obvious challenge, but it’s more than words—it’s about putting yourself in situations where you can’t coast. Where you have to pay attention, react, and learn. It’s starting projects that stretch you. It’s waking up excited because there’s always something worth doing—and something in it you haven’t yet mastered.

You don’t have to move to Spain to make this happen. But you do have to resist the pull toward routines that are too easy and comfort that’s too complete. Because comfort is a time accelerator. Challenge—whether extreme or everyday—presses pause.

Time won’t actually stop, but you can slow it down enough to notice more of it, remember more of it, and live more of it. And at 50 and beyond, that might be the most valuable thing that can happen.

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