Simple Stoic Advice
Time: the present moment
Time: the present moment
The beautiful thing about Stoic philosophy is the advice contained within it is just as applicable today as it was when it was first written all those many years ago. We can learn a great deal from interpreting the advice provided and using it to our advantage as we go throughout our own lives.
Today’s quote comes to us courtesy of Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.50:
Quote
“Consider the abyss of time past, the infinite future. Three days of life or three generations: what’s the difference?”
Advice
What is time? To a Stoic, it is one of the most important elements to life. In reading the Stoic writings that survive, one sees the theme of time running throughout.
Seneca wrote an entire essay, On the Shortness of Life, about our inability to understand how we waste most of our lives.
Marcus, writing the Meditations towards the end of his life, often reflects upon life’s transient nature and the need to be present before time is gone.
We often hear the phrase “stay in the here and now” yet few of us quite listen to it. But this is what Marcus is talking to himself about in the quote above. It doesn’t quite matter whether we’re living for three days or three generations if we are not able to be present.
Likewise, Seneca wrote:
“The present time is extremely short, so much so that some people are unaware of it. For it is always on the move, flowing on in a rush; it ceases before it has come, and does not suffer delay any more than the firmament or the stars, whose unceasing movement never pauses in the same place. And so the preoccupied are concerned only with the present, and it is so short that it cannot be grasped, and even this is stolen from them while they are involved in their many distractions.”
Life is long enough, Seneca would go on to say, so long as we know how to properly use our time. Unfortunately, the majority of us do not. We do not realize early in our life that time is our most valuable resource. The only true way of reclaiming what remains of our lives and having more time is by being present in the moment and maximizing it to its potential.
This is so vital that Seneca specifically lays it out in On the Shortness of Life stating:
“We have to be more careful in preserving what will cease at an unknown point.”
The present moment is all we have and the most effective way of being present in this moment is to maximize our time within it. Understand time is fleeting. Understand that most of us waste time. Once you understand this, move to correct behavior to maximize energy in moments to regain your time and take back control of your life.
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