It's a fact that your clock has been triggred, you can neither pause nor put it back.
You can neither accelerate nor decelerate time.
Your power lies only in misusing it or, making use of it.
The worst thing ever implemented in video games is the revive option.
Whereby the hero can be revived whenever he's dead.
This affects us on a subsconsious level as we rationalize that there is also a revive
option in real life.
Or say, We're so immersed in games & movies to a point that we've grown forgetful of our
own mortality.
Yet in concrete reality, the hero always dies at the end.
Although we have only so many days to live, Seneca claims that anyone has the ability
to prolong his lifetime:
there are two types of people he said,
The leisured, whose lifetime feels prolonged.
And the preoccupied who finds life very short.
There exists a couple reasons to why the preoccupied live a short life.
first & formost, They own a small portion of their lives to
themselves.
constrained to do & restrained from doing.
lost in tasks & duties, seemingly have no alone time to pause & reflect.
And if they did, they'd be overly terrified to meet their worries & regrets.
quote:"even when quite alone, they are their own worst company."unquote
So they try to lose themselves, mindlessly rolling through the best trends, news & celebrity
gossips.
Aiming for a dirty dopamine high.
They Frequently weigh on trivial matters like shaving hair that has grown overnight, disputing
a waiter for bad service or striking up arguments, contending to prove themselves.
Vacations for them seem pleasurable yet still haunted by agony as they question "how long
will this last ?"
If they hear about a new form of high-tech distraction coming out, they count the intervening
days wishing time would leap over to the anticipated event.
So they can finally indulge in mindless consumerism.
Unworthy of their granted souls as they stuff themselves with countless amusements, soaking
stimulus, one after another, to numbing.
We're killing time they say, or say, wishing time would stop, terrified & tired of tomorrow's
busywork.
"Living is the least important activity of the preoccupied man."
The preoccupied: With their insecurities, with living up to
people's standards, with minor issues,
with serious commitments, with cooking themselves in the sun, with investing ample time in arguments,
with proving they are right, with winning everyone's approval, with people they hate
& last but not least, with useless knowledge(abstract or impractical)
"So you must not think a man has lived long because he has white hair and wrinkles: he
has not lived long, just existed long."
In this quote, Seneca illustrates that a good life is measured by "HOW" exactly did you
spend your lifetime & not by how much time you have spent living.
It's crystal clear now that Seneca's criticising the 9-5 rat racer, the indolent, the uncreative,
the consumerist & the purposeless as the lifeless ones.
But nonethless he also classified the rich as one of the preoccupied.
Quote: "There will always be causes for anxiety, wether due to prosperity or to wretchedness.
Life will be driven on through a succession of preoccupations: we shall always long for
leisure, but never enjoy it."
In this one seneca alluded to how building businesses is laborious yet the most miserable
part about it is succeeding.
Thereafter you have to work harder to sustain your wealth & thus life will surely seem short
as you are still preoccupied.
While going through the book, I couldn't help but question: "If the 9-5 guy & also the rich
are both preoccupied, then who are the leisured ones?"
THE LEISURED ONES: WHOSE LIFE IS PROLONGED
"he has the longest possible life simply because whatever time was available he devoted entirely
to himself"
From what I understood, seneca sounds like he's alluding to entrepreneuship.
For the leisured, none a portion of his time lays under another's control.
Live for yourself.
at least try to escape the office even if the odds are against you.
As Thomas H. Huxley said "it is far better for a man to go wrong in freedom than to go
right in chains."
"but I'm afraid this business thing goes wrong."
I hear you saying.
and to that I say, "what makes you think you're in the right,
Who said that there's a right path anyway ?
One is emptisoned because he allows himself to follow.
One is free.. for he has the power to follow.. himself.. & so he did.
You visit this pile of earth once in a lifetime.
Don't live it right.
True north, is what you think is right.
Postponing your interests.
"dude, I'm still young for starting businesses, I'm 25 you know..
"I'm still young for dating, I've never had a girlfriend before but one day, yeah one
day...
I'm not ready yet."
This belief leads us to an amply big point:
What makes you think you're going live another day ?
Plan your work one day at a time, you don't know if you're going to wake up the next day
or not.
A week ago, I had this excruciating nightmare where the same obscure scene keeps repeating
itself over & over.
The dream was dark, weird irritating noises blasting out from all corners.
It was lucid.
I would wake up, get out of bed thinking that It's actually over but then I'd realize I'm
still stuck inside the dream.
It's one of those nightmares where you have to wake up several times until you finally
wake up in actuality.
(laughs)
After several waking ups, I finally managed to really wake up.
I found myself sleeping in a very uncomfortable position.
I felt this strain in the back of my head, the blood wasn't properly getting in to my
brain as it should.
I woke up dizzy, feeling faint, barely able to stand up as I crawled out of bed to turn
on the lights.
Damn, that was one hell of a dream.
I nearly died in my sleep.
have you ever feared going to bed because you thought you would die if you sleep?
Pretty funny isn't it, but that was me a couple weeks after that nightmare.
You don't know if you're going to wake up tomorrow or not.
you're not even in control of your heart rate.
You could stop breathing at any moment.
You could die at any moment.
Start living immediately.
Life is not tommorow, not when you get that promotion, not when you get that degree or
whatever, life is right now.
Mingle with LIKE-MINDED PEOPLE: The leisured are those who seek the company
of great friends.
Wise men in books & in real life.
quote, as "None of them will exaust your years, but
each will contribute his years to yours."
For you will feel alive beside their presence, as each conversation adds on invaluable lessons
to your life.
You are wasteful of it when you stick around the infected.
boasting, shaming, judging, Gossiping.
READING:
The ones whose life is prolonged are those immersed in the practice of freedom, in contribution
& in studying matters that matter.
reading is not only a knowledge soaking process, for you are converting the authors years of
experience, to yours.
The years he spent in the company of other wise men, who, themselves mingled around great
men.
hence absorbing wisdom from books is another way to build a life full of lives, if you
will.
LEGACY is Another great way to transcend mortality.
Leave out insighful work to be remembered for.
Seneca claims that philosophers are free from the curse of time, they are dead indeed yet
still live through their books.
if you leave aLegacy, You will die in fact yet remain intact in
the minds of others.
Your creative work will echo years after your death.
documented & passed on from one generation to another.
Your soul will continue to live through your work as it continues to impact countless lives
till the end of time.