Live Every Day as If It Were Your Last
Death doesn’t make life pointless, death makes life worth living. Sometimes the discussion about the meaning of life serves no purpose besides distracting you from the answer, which is found in front of you when you live your life.
When you wake up, pretend today is your last day and live life as you would in this circumstance. And don’t just think, do.
MORE IDEAS FROM THE ARTICLE
Although eating food is pleasurable, digesting it is our main purpose. We should eat to live rather than live to eat.
To practice this principle, one can eat plain foods without sauces or try intermittent fasting.
Never underestimate the small things in life, as they define the larger and more important ones. Everything is worth paying attention to for all experiences and outcomes in life are interlinked.
Don’t place your satisfaction on big goals and dreams, place your satisfaction on small wins. Consistently having small wins is what usually leads to success.
“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
Throw away conceit and pride before you study any subject. Doing so lets you learn, evolve and develop through the wisdom of others and through embracing the joy of ignorance.
We should learn from the past, but to regret it and then look at it with disdain brings nothing but frustration and anger. There is no reward for dwelling on what you cannot control, the past.
To build character, expect and embrace failure, then seek obstacles that seem uncomfortable. Practicing negative visualization (envisioning the worst possible scenario so you can better appreciate the present) also helps.
RELATED IDEAS
Stoicism is made up of conflicting writings, especially around God, determinism vs free will, happiness vs avoidance of pain etc. Today most Stoic fans are practicing a cafeteria approach: picking up the few useful bits, modifying others, discarding the rest.
But it’s important to know that this is what we’re doing. Because to the extent that we’re taking this approach, we’re not practicing Stoicism. We are abandoning it and relying implicitly on different (and often unidentified) philosophic ideas.
‘Living in agreement with nature’ is about behaving rationally like a human instead of randomly (and out of passion) like a beast. In other words, we should always apply our natural ability ‘reason’ in all of our actions. If we apply reason we live in agreement with nature, because we act like humans are meant to act.
- The people you interact with the most influence your behavior. Consciously consider whom you allow into your life.
- Things can go wrong, anticipate worst-case scenarios to mitigate or avoid them.
- Acting based on habit can lead to mistakes whenever the situations at hand mismatch the ones that led to the creation of the habit.
- Be as invested in building yourself as you are in building your professional life. Study yourself, have ideas, develop them and the relationships that further them.
- Ignore the breaking news and focus on what’s in front of you.
- Take pride in your work, but know that it is not all there is.
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