It's been generations upon generations now. For thousands and thousands of years, humans have been doing the same things, the Stoics observed. They've been chasing power and fame. They've been accumulating stuff. They've been arguing over trivial things. They've been trying to impress other people.
Where are those people now, Marcus Aurelius asks in an important passage in Meditations (grab our favorite translation here). Where are they now? Run through the list, he tells himself, run through the list of the big, powerful historical figures you knew personally. Where are they now?
Gone. Already forgotten. Already worm food.
He dismisses many of these figures—perhaps alluding to Hadrian or Nero or Caligula as people "who worked in vain, who failed to do what they should have." He sees this all as very tragic, that they were fixed on the wrong things, that they tried to find satisfaction in the wrong things.
If we run down a version of this list ourselves, we'll find the same thing. How many pro-athletes from our youth are already old, forgotten, and in some cases, broke. What happened to the vice-president when you were born? Do you even know who it was? What about the top ten people on the Forbes list from 15 years ago? What about that jerk you used to work with?
Life is very brief—far too brief to spend it chasing the wrong things, to be attentive to the wrong things. It's too short to spend it the way far too many people do, which is to say (and as Marcus does in Meditations), unthinkingly plotting, flattering, seeking, arguing, and throwing parties.
Don't waste what's left of your life, as Marcus put it. Spend it on what matters to you. Before you become just another forgotten name on someone else's forgotten list.
It's been eight years since The Daily Stoic Podcast launched. In this episode, Ryan looks back on the journey to 2,600+ episodes to share what he's learned over the years and unveils some exciting changes coming soon to the podcast.
Built for achieving your personal best, the Rocket X 3 delivers a carbon-fiber super shoe that doesn't skimp on support. Maintaining the same responsive, high-performance foam as its predecessor, HOKA has updated their pace-pushing carbon fiber plate with new winglets and employed a sticky rubber outsole to inspire confidence in variable conditions. Enlisting a single-layer engineered mesh upper for enhanced breathability and stitch-and-turn collar to help mitigate blisters.
Check out the Rocket X 3 at HOKA.com and watch Ryan run the original marathon, brought to you in partnership with HOKA at dailystoic.com/marathon.
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