Time, the Ever Flowing River
Four Stoic Views on Time
Four Stoic Views on Time
Marcus Aurelius once described time as “a river, a violent current of events, glimpsed once and already carried past us, and another follows and is gone.”
The Greek philosopher Heraclitus expressed that time, like everything else, is always in a continuous flow.
Never knowing how much is left, we’re subjected to living life in such a way that we must embrace the time we have, in this moment.
Guarding our time
“People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy.”
-Seneca (On the Shortness of Life)
We have locks on our doors. We take ownership over our possessions. We refuse to let others steal personal property.
Yet, how often do we freely give away our time to others?
Too often, because time is not a physical commodity and we do not see it, we freely give it away. We work at times for jobs that do not care for us or make plans with friends who always flake or show up late.
Protect your time the way you might protect a physical item you own.
Enough time to live decently
“The time allotted to our lives may be short, but it is long enough to live honestly and decently.
-Cicero (How to Grow Old)
Carpe diem or seize the day is often thrown around nowadays as an indication of how short life is.
Yet, the term is usually used in such a way as to mean YOLO, or you only live once. It is meant to throw caution to the wind and live freely.
While life is short and we should in every sense seize the day, it doesn’t mean we should live a hedonic life. It doesn’t mean we devour every last desire we have.
Having such a short time means we use it to create a life of honesty and decency, to live our days fulfilling the four cardinal virtues of Justice, Temperance, Wisdom, and Courage.
Focusing Your Time on Yourself and the Common Good
“Don’t waste the rest of your time here worrying about other people-unless it affects the common good.”
-Marcus Aurelius (Meditations)
We are so often caught up in what other individuals think of us that we end up losing valuable time.
We can and should think about what others think of us, but not if it encompasses all of our time.
We are part of communities and with that comes a responsibility to help those communities. This is different though from caring what others are always thinking of us.
Learning when and where to put that attention matters.
No Longer Putting Off to Tomorrow
“How long will you delay thinking yourself worthy of the best and making reason your decisive principle in everything?… If you are negligent now and lazy and always procrastinating, and settIng on the day after tomorrow and the next as when you will take yourself in hand, you will fail to see that you are making no progress but spending your entire life as an ordinary person you die… your progress is saved or ruined by a single day and a single action.”
-Epictetus (Enchiridion)
Procrastination is a natural part of life. Sometimes procrastination can help, it can force us to do little tasks in an effort to avoid that large task we’re dreading. It can give us time time to reflect on what we might do, think through a problem, and figure out a proper solution.
But too often, we never take the next step. We never go and do that big task. We never create the solution to the problem we’ve been thinking about.
Seizing today, taking action on this day, even in the smallest way, will help break that procrastination and will move you forward.
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