Don't Die Before Your Time
The Daily Stoic5 Marras 2019

Don't Die Before Your Time

We’re busy. We’re tired. We have so much to do. We had dreams once, sure, but they slowly deflated. The mortgage, the kids, the job, watching TV, that’s how we fill our days.

It’s a slow downward spiral that Bruce Springsteen sang about in Racing in the Street:

Some guys they just give up living

And start dying little by little, piece by piece

If you’re not that guy, you at least know him or her. They’re a mainstay of the modern world. Overworked, undersexed, overtired, and underappreciated. Facebook is to blame right? The capitalist pigs are responsible, yeah? It’s because of the 24-hour news cycle.

Certainly none of those things help, but the truth is that this is a timeless problem. It goes back much further than Bruce or even this century. Because Seneca spoke about those guys too. “How much time has been lost to groundless anguish,” he writes, “greedy desire, the charms of society; how little is left to you from your own store of time.” Wake up, he says. Stop sleepwalking. Stop giving away what you can never get back. That’s from his essay The Shortness of Life, where he tried to get the reader—as Bruce Springsteen does in his best songs—to “realize that you're dying before your time."

We only get one life. Once time ticks by, it never comes back. Yes, each of us will die. That’s a fact. But for the moment, we’re alive. Which is why we have to live. Which is why we have to protect our time, our dreams, our spirit. We can’t give it up piece by piece. We can’t start dying before our time.

We have to live. Now. While we still can.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jaksot(2952)

The Most Important Ritual You Can Practice This Year

The Most Important Ritual You Can Practice This Year

Why did Marcus Aurelius spend those precious hours in his tent, writing by the lamplight, even on the nights and mornings he strained under the burdens of his war-time duties? It wasn’t for our benefi...

14 Marras 20184min

Be A User, Not A Loser

Be A User, Not A Loser

Dr. D.T. Suzuki, a 20th century Japanese author who was largely responsible for popularizing Buddhism, Zen, and Shin in the West, was once approached at the end of a dinner party. “How is it, Dr. Suzu...

13 Marras 20182min

You Become Like Your Friends

You Become Like Your Friends

“Nature gave us friendship,” Cicero wrote, “as an aid to virtue, not as a companion to vice.”What he meant was that friends are supposed to make you better, not make you worse. Friends are supposed to...

12 Marras 20181min

Get Yourself Under Control

Get Yourself Under Control

It was Heraclitus--a favorite of Marcus Aurelius--who said that “to be self-controlled is the greatest of excellence.” Isn’t that the truth? It’s why we admire athletes and Navy SEALS and the Civil Ri...

9 Marras 20182min

We Have So Much In Common

We Have So Much In Common

In a very short period around 2003, the musician Rosanne Cash lost her sister, her step mother, her father , and her mother. It was a series of blows that rocked her, even as stoic and strong as she w...

8 Marras 20183min

Your Hunger For Money Is Starving You

Your Hunger For Money Is Starving You

William MacAskill is a fascinating guy. He is the youngest Associate Professor in Philosophy at the University of Oxford. He’s one of the founders of the Effective Altruism movement. He’s written a gr...

7 Marras 20182min

Each Of Us Has A Duty

Each Of Us Has A Duty

In one sense, it’s hard to argue with the statistics that any individual’s vote makes a difference. One person out of so many? When more than 50% of the population doesn’t even bother? In a country of...

6 Marras 20183min

Let Us Argue With Reality No More

Let Us Argue With Reality No More

So much of what we do as a society could be described as arguing with reality. Turn on cable news and you’ll find talking heads screaming at their upset viewers about how whatever has happened as part...

5 Marras 20183min

Suosittua kategoriassa Liike-elämä ja talous

sijotuskasti
mimmit-sijoittaa
psykopodiaa-podcast
rss-rahapodi
herrasmieshakkerit
ostan-asuntoja-podcast
rss-rahamania
rss-lahtijat
rahapuhetta
rss-sami-miettinen-neuvottelija
rss-doulapodi
rss-paasipodi
yrittaja
hyva-paha-johtaminen
juristipodi
rss-sisalto-kuntoon
rss-seuraava-potilas
pomojen-suusta
seminuoret-sijoittajat
rss-porssipuhetta