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.
Letter #1 is a great introduction to Seneca’s Moral Letters. It’s short, easy to digest, and wholly concerned with the one thing we own: the little time we’re given.
1. Show me someone who truly values their time
I’m guilty of letting most days pass without thinking about their unique worth and role in the broader narrative of my life.
I forget that I’m “dying daily… and that whatever years have passed are already in death’s hands.”
We own nothing except the little time we’ve been given, and the energy we have to act during that time.
Although it feels cliche, Seneca’s instruction to Lucilius is still just as relevant today as it was 2,000 years ago: “hold every hour in your grasp… gather and save your time… set yourself free for your own sake.”
2. Much of time is lost unconsciously
We don’t deliberately waste our time.
However, we often lose time due to carelessness, procrastination, or by simply not valuing it appropriately.
For example, we’re often quick to put a price on material possessions, but we hardly hesitate when someone asks for some of our time. “And yet time is the one loan which even a grateful recipient cannot repay,” says Seneca.
3. Don’t wait til the bottom of the cask
“I advise you, however, to keep what is really yours; and you cannot begin too early. For, as our ancestors believed, it is too late to spare when you reach the dregs of the cask. Of that which remains at the bottom, the amount is slight, and the quality is vile.”
I once heard an analogy that we each have an 100-year-sized water tank. It’s a large, opaque tank, and we get to choose when, how much, and for what, we use the water inside.
The catch is the amount of water in our tank is unknown, and there’s no way of finding out how much we have left.
Some people use their water like it’ll never run out. Some people conserve their water to the point they forget to live.
Let’s not wait until the water has run out before we start to appreciate it.