Checking the altitude of Clingman's Dome.
Much like in Roman times, we find ourselves asking where all the time went in our lives. The time we spend in life is splintered into an array of activities. Work, sports, social activities, sloth, ambition, greed to name a few, and the list could extend to infinity.
On The Shortness of Life, Seneca points out that life isn’t short, but that we waste much of it, even in our modern age where so much of what we do can be completed in a fraction of time compared to the past.
“Some have no objective at all which to aim but are overtaken by fate as they gape and yawn”. We go about our lives without any solid direction. As a matter of fact, we are held ransom by the various desires in our heart. In this context, “desires” isn’t meant as sin, but as the excesses of our own prosperity. How many times have we worked ourselves to exhaustion? How many times are we robbed of our time for the sake of business, and have too many obligations to allow time for ourselves?
Even more hilarious is the fact that we argue and complain when others don’t want to be bothered by us, yet we don’t make time for ourselves. We’re too busy planning pointless schedules and deadlines that we fail to see that if we’re unable to appreciate ourselves, we won’t appreciate others. And trust me the “others” will be able to tell. At the drop of a hat, we’ll threaten litigation, or physical harm to someone who steals from us, but we’ll allow any number of people or activities to steal away our lives, to the point that we’ll allow someone full access to us at all times (cell phones, anyone?)
Sit down, and actually take an accounting of your time. How much of it is spent tending your yard, fixing things around the house, entertaining others for profit, sickness, looking for the “best deal”. Compare these to the time you actually had a plan and followed through, days that went exactly as planned, days free of any preoccupation, days free of obligations. Also tally up the wasteful moments of regret, avarice, and maintaining the status quo. Take all these things into mind and then ask yourself is life really short or do we truly waste it?
Referring back to Seneca, “Why should this be? It is because you live as if you would live forever; the thought of human frailty never enters your head, you never notice how much of your time is already spent.”That is, we waste it so blindly, and act like we’ll live forever. Too often we hear the phrase, “when I retire”. Tell me, please, are you so certain that you will live to retire? I personally have spoken to co-workers who longed to do something other than the work they found themselves in. They literally have died waiting.
We all should be ashamed for reserving our so-called golden years for the end. We give our most capable years away to useless obligations and put our dreams aside as if they mean nothing. We should be living them now instead of expecting to live it in a future that is not guaranteed to us.
Too often I see people saying that they can’t wait for the weekend, or TGIF. Do we really spend our lives in such a manner that only two days (and in some cases just one) are days that we truly enjoy? And the one or two days that we actually get to ourselves, we waste it on late nights out, doing nothing with the dreams and aspirations in our mind, and then we ask ourselves, “where has the time gone?” It’s gone to waste. We forget ourselves and then come looking when it’s far too late.
A person who does something with their life wastes no time. They don’t give it away for the sake of others who don’t appreciate their time on Earth. They dedicate as much time as possible for themselves. They wake up ready for anything the day throws at them, and are not anxious for rest. Life isn’t counted by the wrinkles on one’s face. All that’s proof of is that they’ve been here a while. It’s not an indicator of whether or not they have truly lived.
What’s truly amazing is that time isn’t given any value. Sure, we are paid by the hour, but if that same standard were applied to our personal lives I doubt we would waste it so. Note though how time becomes a precious commodity at specific points in life, that is, during emergencies, as weekends and vacations come to an end, when we’re dying. We act as if our lives were never to end, but suddenly become frugal with it when time is short. The problem is that no one knows how long their time here is, therefore, they do nothing to make the most of it. If we all knew how long our lives would be, to the second, I promise that we would then place a value on our time. We should be treating our time as a scarce resource, more valuable than any currency, and be sparing in how we give it away to indulgences and to other people.
Be careful of anyone who claims they are working hard to prepare for the future. They will try to tell you that the best way to live is to save for the future. Or, as Seneca puts it, “they spend life in making provision for life.” They plot the future, but all they’re really doing is procrastinating. Doing this robs you of the present on the grounds of paying you in the future. Your life will pass you by all for the sake of saving a buck, and even if you reach the point to where you can spend that saved buck, it will be bitterly spent not on living the dreams you had in your youth, but on a means to continue living in the future’s present as it will be your only source of income due to lack of work.
The game of life shouldn’t be “save up for the future.” The game of life should be not to waste your time, so that you live life to the fullest, and work in order to maintain life, not to define it. I’m not saying that we should be working a 40 hour workweek until death or live a life of sloth, but that we should have such control of our time that our work and personal lives have a balance that is sustainable into old age.
The concept of delaying life in the present to live in the future is a façade. If you have a dream, you should be reaching for it now.
When was the last time you had a vacation? Did you spend it thinking about what you need to do once you get home? About the work that’ll be waiting for you? How many times have you checked your e-mail for work purposes on vacation? Even at leisure, we’re not really at leisure. As Seneca calls it, we’re simply in a “busy idleness”. If the phone causes you to look for work to do while gone, turn it off and put it away. Did you argue with the receptionist at the hotel because you were put in a room with two beds instead of one? If so, again, you just wasted your time and peace of mind for something irrelevant. Quit nickel and diming your leisure and just relax.
Would it surprise you to know that we watch on average 2 months worth of TV per year. Assuming everyone lives to be 65 we’ll have spent 9 years of our life in front of a box allowing it to fill our heads with mostly useless information?
How much time do you spend enriching your mind and body solely for yourself?
How much of the enriching that you provide yourself do you share with others?
Seneca would say that everyone should be a philosopher. To some degree, I think he’s right. I don’t think we should sit around and just read books all day, but I think it’s important to take into account introspection and combine it with teachings from our past to create something new. What we’ve learned in the past just needs to be tapped in order for us to live for the present and future. Share the knowledge you have with others and your time on earth will extend beyond your mortal boundaries. This is how we should be applying our lives, and our means of making sure that when it’s our time to pass on, we’re ready.
Be leery of the people who waste their lives. You know who they are. They’re the ones who seek vice. They are also the ones who spend their time huffing that they have to wait for anything yet waste their time on nothing. They are the ones who run from one pleasure to another and exhaust themselves over it. Another symptom of this is presented by the people who are constantly looking for “Friday” when they should be focusing on today. “They lose the day in expectation of night, and night in fear of dawn”. Their minds are constantly fraught with despair. Any good tidings that may come their way are assailed by worry about when the next mishap will occur.
If you’re one of those really ambitious people, I have some humbling news for you. Anything that is obtained through great effort and requires even more effort to maintain will give you great anxiety. You will spend the bulk of your life holding on to what you have “earned” and in the meantime, your life will pass you by. You will be known for the lofty position you reached, but nothing more.
There’s still hope though; you’re still alive. There’s still some time left. “It is better to know the balance sheet of one’s life than of the public grain supply.” In other words, make an accounting of your life, and understand that you need to care for yourself if you are to truly live.
Life is short for those who measure the quality of their life to others. Also, don’t be envious of the people who take up a high paying job or otherwise “distinguished” position because the price of that is their own life. “Some crawl up through a thousand indignities to reach the crowning dignity, only to realize that the object of their toil was their epitaph.” It’s a shame to see people literally work until death, never tasting life. We can’t be slaves to this lifestyle! By law, not even the military will draft after a certain age! So it seems that it’s harder for us to find time for ourselves than from the law.
So the next time you dream of something big, want to go after that promotion, think that the only way out is up, make an accounting of your life, and ask yourself, how much is your time worth?
Sit down, and actually take an accounting of your time. How much of it is spent tending your yard, fixing things around the house, entertaining others for profit, sickness, looking for the “best deal”. Compare these to the time you actually had a plan and followed through, days that went exactly as planned, days free of any preoccupation, days free of obligations. Also tally up the wasteful moments of regret, avarice, and maintaining the status quo. Take all these things into mind and then ask yourself is life really short or do we truly waste it?
Referring back to Seneca, “Why should this be? It is because you live as if you would live forever; the thought of human frailty never enters your head, you never notice how much of your time is already spent.”That is, we waste it so blindly, and act like we’ll live forever. Too often we hear the phrase, “when I retire”. Tell me, please, are you so certain that you will live to retire? I personally have spoken to co-workers who longed to do something other than the work they found themselves in. They literally have died waiting.
We all should be ashamed for reserving our so-called golden years for the end. We give our most capable years away to useless obligations and put our dreams aside as if they mean nothing. We should be living them now instead of expecting to live it in a future that is not guaranteed to us.
Too often I see people saying that they can’t wait for the weekend, or TGIF. Do we really spend our lives in such a manner that only two days (and in some cases just one) are days that we truly enjoy? And the one or two days that we actually get to ourselves, we waste it on late nights out, doing nothing with the dreams and aspirations in our mind, and then we ask ourselves, “where has the time gone?” It’s gone to waste. We forget ourselves and then come looking when it’s far too late.
A person who does something with their life wastes no time. They don’t give it away for the sake of others who don’t appreciate their time on Earth. They dedicate as much time as possible for themselves. They wake up ready for anything the day throws at them, and are not anxious for rest. Life isn’t counted by the wrinkles on one’s face. All that’s proof of is that they’ve been here a while. It’s not an indicator of whether or not they have truly lived.
What’s truly amazing is that time isn’t given any value. Sure, we are paid by the hour, but if that same standard were applied to our personal lives I doubt we would waste it so. Note though how time becomes a precious commodity at specific points in life, that is, during emergencies, as weekends and vacations come to an end, when we’re dying. We act as if our lives were never to end, but suddenly become frugal with it when time is short. The problem is that no one knows how long their time here is, therefore, they do nothing to make the most of it. If we all knew how long our lives would be, to the second, I promise that we would then place a value on our time. We should be treating our time as a scarce resource, more valuable than any currency, and be sparing in how we give it away to indulgences and to other people.
Be careful of anyone who claims they are working hard to prepare for the future. They will try to tell you that the best way to live is to save for the future. Or, as Seneca puts it, “they spend life in making provision for life.” They plot the future, but all they’re really doing is procrastinating. Doing this robs you of the present on the grounds of paying you in the future. Your life will pass you by all for the sake of saving a buck, and even if you reach the point to where you can spend that saved buck, it will be bitterly spent not on living the dreams you had in your youth, but on a means to continue living in the future’s present as it will be your only source of income due to lack of work.
The game of life shouldn’t be “save up for the future.” The game of life should be not to waste your time, so that you live life to the fullest, and work in order to maintain life, not to define it. I’m not saying that we should be working a 40 hour workweek until death or live a life of sloth, but that we should have such control of our time that our work and personal lives have a balance that is sustainable into old age.
The concept of delaying life in the present to live in the future is a façade. If you have a dream, you should be reaching for it now.
When was the last time you had a vacation? Did you spend it thinking about what you need to do once you get home? About the work that’ll be waiting for you? How many times have you checked your e-mail for work purposes on vacation? Even at leisure, we’re not really at leisure. As Seneca calls it, we’re simply in a “busy idleness”. If the phone causes you to look for work to do while gone, turn it off and put it away. Did you argue with the receptionist at the hotel because you were put in a room with two beds instead of one? If so, again, you just wasted your time and peace of mind for something irrelevant. Quit nickel and diming your leisure and just relax.
Would it surprise you to know that we watch on average 2 months worth of TV per year. Assuming everyone lives to be 65 we’ll have spent 9 years of our life in front of a box allowing it to fill our heads with mostly useless information?
How much time do you spend enriching your mind and body solely for yourself?
How much of the enriching that you provide yourself do you share with others?
Seneca would say that everyone should be a philosopher. To some degree, I think he’s right. I don’t think we should sit around and just read books all day, but I think it’s important to take into account introspection and combine it with teachings from our past to create something new. What we’ve learned in the past just needs to be tapped in order for us to live for the present and future. Share the knowledge you have with others and your time on earth will extend beyond your mortal boundaries. This is how we should be applying our lives, and our means of making sure that when it’s our time to pass on, we’re ready.
Be leery of the people who waste their lives. You know who they are. They’re the ones who seek vice. They are also the ones who spend their time huffing that they have to wait for anything yet waste their time on nothing. They are the ones who run from one pleasure to another and exhaust themselves over it. Another symptom of this is presented by the people who are constantly looking for “Friday” when they should be focusing on today. “They lose the day in expectation of night, and night in fear of dawn”. Their minds are constantly fraught with despair. Any good tidings that may come their way are assailed by worry about when the next mishap will occur.
If you’re one of those really ambitious people, I have some humbling news for you. Anything that is obtained through great effort and requires even more effort to maintain will give you great anxiety. You will spend the bulk of your life holding on to what you have “earned” and in the meantime, your life will pass you by. You will be known for the lofty position you reached, but nothing more.
There’s still hope though; you’re still alive. There’s still some time left. “It is better to know the balance sheet of one’s life than of the public grain supply.” In other words, make an accounting of your life, and understand that you need to care for yourself if you are to truly live.
Life is short for those who measure the quality of their life to others. Also, don’t be envious of the people who take up a high paying job or otherwise “distinguished” position because the price of that is their own life. “Some crawl up through a thousand indignities to reach the crowning dignity, only to realize that the object of their toil was their epitaph.” It’s a shame to see people literally work until death, never tasting life. We can’t be slaves to this lifestyle! By law, not even the military will draft after a certain age! So it seems that it’s harder for us to find time for ourselves than from the law.
So the next time you dream of something big, want to go after that promotion, think that the only way out is up, make an accounting of your life, and ask yourself, how much is your time worth?
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