On The Shortness of Life
“On The Shortness of Life” by Seneca is one of the greatest essays ever written.
It is only 40 pages and was written nearly 2000 years ago, but it feels like it was written yesterday. It is one of the books that you can read in less than an hour that can transform your entire outlook on who you are, where you’ve been, and where you are going. It is tough to describe it with words, but let me attempt.
The theme of the book centers around the idea that most of us waste a lot of our time. We spend our time like we have an infinite amount of it. We do work we don’t care about, spend time with people we hate, and aim to please people who don’t matter. It is only in our final hours where we realize the true value of life. Ask a rich man on his deathbed how much he would spend to get even 1 more month of life and he would say “everything.”
Some people are alive for many years, yet live for very few.
So what does Seneca recommend? The great part of Seneca’s writing is that it doesn’t prescribe a direct course of action, instead, he asks very well-thought-out questions that open our minds to the absolutely insane way that humans operate in regard to our time.
However, if he does give any semblance of a recommendation it can be described in two sections.
Live with purpose. Our time is limited, do something that truly matters to you. Don’t slave away for something that is meaningless. Make every single day count. In everything you do, do it intentionally. This echoes the thoughts of Benjamin Franklin, who says you should avoid purposeless idle time. This isn’t to say always be working, but even your idle time should be purposeful.
Trim the fat. If your time was expressed in dollar figures would you give it to undeserving people? No, you wouldn’t. Be thoughtful with your time. Value it more than you would value money.