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Recently, I caught one of Ryan Holiday’s Daily Stoic YouTube videos. In video #24 at around 16:30, he said something paraphrasing Seneca (Amazon Affiliate link),

“Death is not in the future. Death is right now. Every second that passes belongs to death.”

Hearing this made me pause to let this marinade in my brain. First, I didn’t interpret “death” as the “permanent cessation of all the vital functions.” I saw it from the context of something ending, so that something else could begin. In this case, one moment ending and the next one commencing. To me, I was fascinated with the idea of thinking of each moment as a separate lifetime. I feel that, by viewing our moments as micro-lifetimes, we can live more mindfully by using this question as a filter,

“Is this what I want to be doing in this moment?“

That same day, I was reading a bit more of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations (Amazon Affiliate link) that I felt complemented the Seneca quote. In Book 2.4, he wrote,

“Think of your many years of procrastination; how the gods have repeatedly granted you further periods of grace of which you have taken no advantage…understand that your time has a limit set to it.“

I think back to my past. On more than a few occasions, I was EXACTLY the type of person that Marcus Aurelius was warning. For one, when I was younger, I thought that I had forever. “Oh, I’ll just do it later.” Later came…and….nothing. Perhaps fear made me hesitate. Now, I can see that, if you at least try, you might succeed. However, if you do nothing, then you guarantee that nothing will happen. If you are fortunate, you may be blessed with a few “do overs.” However, as the passage states, “your time has a limit set to it.” Eventually, you will run out of them.

Then, in Book 2.14, he wrote,

“…remember that the sole life, which a man can lose, is that which he is living at the moment...For the passing minute is every man’s equal possession, but what has once gone by is not ours.“

Wow…this sounds a lot like the Seneca quote that Ryan Holiday (Amazon Affiliate link) paraphrased. This isn’t surprising, as Meditations wasn’t so much an instructional manual, as Marcus Aurelius philosophically working out answers to some of his life’s questions. Undoubtedly, he may have referred to Seneca or other Stoic influences to provide him direction. Considering the numerous threats, as Roman emperor, that he faced at any given moment, procrastination couldn’t be considered as an option.

Through Stoicism and my religious practice, I have learned and came to believe that there is little in life that is truly ours and can go as easily as it came. In a way, most of it is an illusion. Money can disappear through job loss or catastrophic expenses. The house that you take pride in could be destroyed tomorrow. The people that you considered friends abandon you, once that your life takes a downturn. The one thing that any of us truly owns and can either work for or against us is time.

So I ask you now,

HOW MUCH IS YOUR TIME TRULY WORTH?

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