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Overview

Have you ever felt like life is passing you by? Or that, despite your best intentions, you’re wasting time? Well, Seneca the Younger had the same feeling. He wrote down ideas on how to combat that feeling and how to make sure one does something useful with one’s life.

Nero, the infamous Roman emperor who is said to have played violin while Rome burned to the ground, had Seneca as a tutor. He was one of his age’s most prominent thinkers and playwrights. Like other Stoics, he believed that people should accept their place in the world and be content with it. Many of his thoughts are still relevant today because they deal with problems we face every day. And many of his answers remain good advice for dealing with those problems.

In this essay, you’ll find out that reading can make your life more meaningful. You’ll also learn how to find pleasure without pursuing it and why planning an elaborate funeral is a waste of money.

Big Idea #1: Life is short if you waste it on trivialities.

People have always been bad at wasting time. Most people spend most of their time doing trivial things, even if these things don’t seem trivial to them.

However, in order to make life seem longer, you must pursue trivial activities. For example, if you only focus on achieving status or power, then your life will seem especially short because you will always be striving for some future goal and not enjoying the present moment.

People think that once they achieve their goals, they’ll have the time to enjoy life. But it rarely works out this way. What usually happens is that people spend their life preparing for a better future and don’t actually live in the present. The Emperor Augustus was one of these people who didn’t take advantage of his retirement because he had so many responsibilities as an emperor.

If you want to live a happy life, don’t pursue luxury. You won’t be able to enjoy it because your mind will always be thinking about how the current pleasure will soon end or where the next one will come from.

But the worst kind of people are those who seek glory after death. They get wrapped up in planning for a future that’s not even theirs, and they think about their obituary or giant tombs. Funerals should be simple affairs with only one burning candle as a symbol for the shortness of human life.

Big Idea #2: Busyness doesn’t equal fulfillment.

If a ship were to be tossed around by storms for an entire year, it would not be accurate to say that the ship steered itself. In life, it’s also important to follow your dreams and pursue goals while knowing when you should let go of certain things.

Some people are content to wander aimlessly, constantly changing direction. They worry that they’re not headed in the right direction and long for what they’ve left behind.

Many people are happy to let their lives be dictated by external forces. They only stop drifting when they’re too tired or old to continue.

Some people are just bad. They don’t feel guilty about it, they don’t try to change their ways, and they never do the right thing.

For some people, they don’t change their habits even when they know it’s the right time to do so. However, for others, no matter how much longer they live or how strong they become, they wouldn’t change their ways.

The worst thing is to be carried away by someone else’s obsessions. It’s pointless working for people whose interests and convictions don’t match yours. You’re doomed if you do this, because then your worries won’t even be your own, and you’ll run aground.

When people are stuck in a situation, they usually complain that their boss doesn’t listen to them. However, if you can’t find the time to listen to yourself and pursue your own goals, why should anyone else?