Use Them Carefully | Daily Quote #480

Just because the actual number is unknown doesn't mean we shouldn't act as if we know...

“If each of us could have the tally of his future years set before him, as we can of our past years, how alarmed would be those who saw only a few years ahead, and how carefully would they use them! And yet it is easy to organise an amount, however small, which is assured; we have to be more careful in preserving what will cease at an unknown point.”

Seneca, Letters from a Stoic (Letter 49: On The Shortness of Life)

Why do we put off things for the future? Why do we waste and squander the present moment? All that is guaranteed is right now. So use it, now.

Age is a marker of how long we have been alive - of how many years have passed us by. What percentage of that time have you made the most of? How much time did you wish to pass for a certain moment to come? That is time you are never getting back.

Be patient for the future, it will be here - and over - before you know it.

If we could actively see the hourglass of life, see the grains of sand slowly whittle away, how much more urgent would we be in going after what we want? Spending life in the way we always dreamed of?

You can’t see this. But it is not too difficult to imagine. Just because you can’t see the hourglass doesn’t mean the sand is not flowing. Hopefully you have a lot of grains left to flow, but you can never know. So, use the present carefully, in each moment. Make the most of what time you have left. Now.

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