Life Feels Short Because You Waste It; Seneca’s 3 Rules for a Long Life.
Over two thousand years ago, one of the Rome’s best thinkers wrote a letter to his friend addressing a common complaint. Often hearing people claim life did not offer them enough time to do everything they wanted, Seneca considered how these people used this limited resource.
On the Shortness of Life calls out those who claim life’s time is too short, with Seneca questioning why we would say such a thing when what we have been given is rarely put to good use.
“We are not given a short life, but we make it short, and are not ill-supplied, but waste most of it”
Seneca, believed to be born the same year as Jesus, points to those who staunchly guard their personal property and money, but give up our most valuable possession, our time, so freely.
Today our time is not so much consumed by work or in personal obligations, but the time we spend thinking of displeasures, replaying negative events, and being drawn into technologies designed to take our time and attention. While all of these things are free for us to use, they often leave us outraged, jealous, and miserable.
To be aware of those things is the first step in being what Seneca refers to as a philosopher — one who lives an examined life. Only they can free themselves from so many of these things that steal our peace, but more importantly our time.
“So the life of the philosopher extends widely, he is not confined by the same boundary as are others. He alone is free from the laws that limit the human race”
The confines are both the plentiful small obstacles in life, to that of our limited time. Once understood these philosophers are no longer burdened by the belief that life is short because they know how to put it to good use.
Seneca gives specific ideas on how these philosophers use their time by giving advice for the past, present, and future.
“Some time has passed: he grasps it in his recollection. Time is present: he uses it. Time is to come: He anticipates it. This combination of all times into one gives him a long life”
“Some time has passed: He grasps it in his recollection”
To learn the lessons of history, on micro and macro levels, cannot take away from one’s life. Past misfortunes and tragedies do not become our own, but we now view with perspective their causes and effects. Seneca paints a simple picture of this, the past can only add to the quality of our lives.
“None of them will exhaust your years, but each will contribute his to yours”
Here Seneca also gets to one of the most interesting ideas I have found on the nature of time.
As if a tower, our lives have a set amount of floors to be filled with our own experience. But these are limited, we only have so much time of our own to learn. By taking these lessons of history, from major events to one person’s thoughts, these are accessible for us to learn in a less time-consuming manner and add what may have been the sum of all they knew, and incorporate it into our own with much less investment of time. These can be added, stacked, to our own lives, effectively making them longer.
“All the years that have passed before them are added to their own”
To learn from history not only prevents us from spending our time to learn the same things but can lengthen our existence by adding an understanding of the past to our present.
Not only are our life spans longer than in most of history, but now we have more information easily accessible to us. Never could we have read so widely, learned from so many different people in varying mediums than ever before, and in turn, our lives could have never been longer if properly used.
In a globalized world, it is naive to think just what we have been provided will be enough to live a full life, as General James Mattis expresses “If you haven’t read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate and you will be incompetent because your personal experiences aren’t broad enough to sustain you.”
What we can experience first-hand is limited. It is bound by the era in which we live, the places we inhabit, and the people we surround ourselves with. But we are no longer only able to learn from first-hand experiences. As General Mattis suggests, in a world where people can know more than the sum of their experiences, to not leaves you in a sort of poverty.
“Time is present: He uses it”
While seemingly the easiest to understand; the present and how we use it has been the focus of nearly every generational tale, myth, and religion. Each of these reveals the key to a better existence to be the use of attention to have awareness in the present moment — for here and now is the only actual place we can experience the feeling of peace and happiness.
“It is generally agreed that no activity can be successfully pursued by an individual who is preoccupied… since the mind when distracted absorbs nothing.”
Today’s technology has all but eliminated boredom from our daily lives, we are now never more than a reach into our pockets from a never-ending stream of entertainment. While many see this as just filling up the previously dead moments in life, it is not hard to see how it has permeated the rest of our time as well.
Always waiting for a call, text, email, likes on a post, and the endless flow of information from our devices, we are close to having whatever we are doing in our physical world become a mere distraction from our digital lives.
We can be out with friends at some event we eagerly anticipated just to have the time we are there filled up by our devices, on our own, and those around us on theirs as well. Too often though we become so engrossed in our devices that the present moment escapes us and we just have the digital version of it we post as a sort of receipt to prove existence.
“It’s with this unceasing and extremely fast-moving journey of life… the preoccupied become aware of it only when it’s over”
When the present moment calls it can be difficult to inhabit, our minds spend so little time here now being preoccupied with the past and future. James Clear points out that “where we spend our attention is where we spend our lives”, illuminating how when our attention is placed on the past and future that’s all we ever know, and the present escapes our use.
Seneca’s advice is evident, to live the life of the philosopher one needs to use the present moment. When our attention is placed on the now we have a chance to live, and our limited time used.
“Time is to come: He anticipates it”
Seneca’s wisdom on to how best prepare for the future revolves around the idea of understating human nature and not set ourselves up for future failures or disappointments. Our lives are designed around our desires, but they can be fleeting.
“New preoccupations take the place of the old, hope excites more hope and ambition more ambition. They do not look for an end to their misery they simply change the reason”
When choosing and pursuing goals how often do we envision a future where we are content, just to arrive and find it is not quite what we thought? Seneca points this out not for the understanding of the past, but to better anticipate the future. If we know that our goals will result in more goals, can we liberate ourselves from the mirage-like experience and find a better way to live today.
Seneca also warns achieving what we think we want may just bring about more work, as often a home, item, or status requires upkeep.
“So it is inevitable that life will be not just very short but very miserable for those who acquire by great toil what they must keep by greater toil”
A student of Seneca himself, Ryan Holiday often speaks of the difference between owning nice things and being owned by nice things. Yuval Noah Harari shares in his book Sapiens “One of history’s few iron laws is that luxuries tend to become necessities and to spawn new obligations.”
We can take these lessons that no amount of money or status will seem like enough once we’ve arrived at what was once our goal, and get the years back we may have spent getting to this realization. To recognize this allows us to consider what we truly want, how we can build our lives around the picture of our ideal day, and no longer put it off for some far off future date which may never occur.
To take the lessons of history and see the common pitfalls is to anticipate the future. To plan a better life with this is in mind is to live the life of the philosopher.
“This combination of all times into one gives him a long life.”
In Tibetan Buddhism, the term “Now” is described as the combination of the past, present, and future into the current boundless moment. By drawing off the expansive past, and being aware of the future and how the mind will respond to it, we can better experience the present.
“But life is very short and anxious for those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear the future”
Two centuries ago Seneca outlined how to have a long life, and we now live in a world where experiences and opportunities have never been more available. It is a strange reality to see a heightened sense of missing out or commonly now known as FOMO in many people.
It is worth questioning what our present selves think they will miss, as this feeling of FOMO is just a misuse of the past and future, making us also miss out on the present.
It appears many are acting to create the best digital image of their lives, this is merely something we acquire through toil, which is only kept through greater toil. How do you follow up on the perfect Instagram post from Coachella?
By learning from the past and expecting the future, the present can be put to good use. By using the present properly, we get the most use of it. If we do this often enough, time begins to feel abundant.
“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were well invested.”
Just as we plan what to do with our possessions, money, and relationships, finding ways to maximize their usefulness through smart investing or placement, as well as limit their harm by insuring, reducing risk, and removing ourselves from negative situations, we also must do this with our time.
To do this is to use our limited time with intention, and to live Seneca’s model of a philosopher. No longer will we worry that life is short because we have done the work to make it long.
