“Show me that the good life doesn’t consist in its length, but in its use, and that it is possible — no, entirely too common — for a person who has had a long life to have lived too little.”
SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 49.10b
The goal is not to live a long life. The goal is to live a good life. And these are not necessarily the same thing.
Often, people who reach very old age still haven’t lived fully. It’s entirely possible for a centenarian to have focused on the wrong things, and have been distracted by folly all the way to the very end. Being ancient doesn’t equal being wise.
In The Daily Stoic today, the author makes the point that we live the good life by “pouring ourselves fully and intentionally into the present.” By living each moment as it happens, in the here and now. By savoring each morsel of life as it is served to us in the grand banquet.
We all want to be that person who, once they’ve passed, people say, “they really lived a good and full life.” You achieve that level of mastery by keeping your eyes on the real prize, and staying focused on what truly matters in life and not what society tells you. And by remembering to live in the present.
