“As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.”
― Seneca
Transcript
We live in a time where the average lifespan is almost double what it was 200 years ago. Advances in medicine, sanitation, and agriculture have made it possible for more people to live longer. And in many other ways, the physical and external parts of life are better. It’s certainly much easier than it was 200 years ago.
But as we work on increasing our lifespans, are we working on increasing the quality of our lives? Are we living a good life? Because what’s the point of living longer, just to live longer?
If you live to 100 and you’re unhappy and miserable and treat people poorly, what’s the point?
As a good Stoic, you should always keep in mind “Memento Mori”, that you could leave life at any moment, so you shouldn’t expect to live to an old age. It may happen, it may not. It’s something, that for the most part is out of our control, so you should do your best to live a life that, were you to die tomorrow, you’d be proud of.
As Marcus Aurelius said, “Waste no more time arguing about what a good person should be. Be one.”
What are you doing to write your story? What steps are you taking to create a life that is worth living? What are you doing to step out of the grind of work, Netflix, sleep, repeat?
Don’t wait until tomorrow to work on becoming a better person.
Don’t wait until later to be kind and helpful to others.
Don’t wait until next year to start working on the dreams that you have.
You don’t know how long you will live, put more effort into living better than living longer.
Photo by Lucas Lenzi on Unsplash