You aren’t bothered, are you, because you weight a certain amount and not twice as much? So why get worked up that you’ve been given a certain lifespan and not more? Just as you are satisfied with your normal weight, so you should be with the time you’ve been given.
—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.49
They say age is just a number, but to some people it’s a very important one—otherwise, women wouldn’t lie about being younger, and ambitious young men wouldn’t lie about being older. Rich people and health nuts spend billions of dollars in an effort to move the expiration date from around seventy-eight years to hopefully forever.
The number of years we mange to eke out doesn’t matter, only what those years are composed of. Seneca put it best when he said, “Life is long if you know how to use it.” Sadly, most people don’t—they waste the life they’ve been given. Only when it is too late do they try to compensate for that waste by vainly hoping to put more time on the clock.
Use today. Use every day. Make yourself satisfied with what you have been given.
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman