Note: This post is part of a weekly series called ‘Seneca Sundays’. Each week, I reflect on one of Seneca’s ‘Moral Letters to Lucilius’, and summarise the most practical and useful principles to share with you.
This letter is a short one with a couple of sound ideas to ponder over.
1. Spend time with the eminent dead
Seneca says, “I spend my time in the company of all the best; no matter in what lands they may have lived, or in what age, I let my thoughts fly to them.”
We have instant access to the wisest humans in history. Each time we pick up one of their books, it’s an opportunity to listen, converse, disagree, and debate with the ideas that have stood the test of time.
By absorbing the best lessons of the eminent dead, it’s a shortcut—a cheat code of sorts—to help us live a better life. There’s no need for us to learn these lessons through personal experience when we can learn vicariously from the best.
2. We control our own hours. No excuses.
Many people hide behind the excuse that they’re busy. They can’t get fit, eat well, start that business, or spend more time with friends and family, because of one reason or another.
Seneca criticises this point of view. He says, “I do not surrender myself to my affairs, but loan myself to them, and I do not hunt out excuses for wasting my time.”
We’d be furious if someone stole our possessions, so why do we let others steal our time without any protest?
There really are no excuses for how we spend our time.