“Aren’t you ashamed to reserve for yourself only the remnants of your life and to dedicate to wisdom only that time (which) can’t be redirected to business?”
SENECA, ON THE BREVITY OF LIFE, 3.5b
If you’re studying philosophy on a regular basis, or reading The Daily Stoic, or subscribed to the daily posts on this website, then chances are you realize the importance of philosophy in your life, and the self-work that it enables.
I’ll go further and say that if this sounds like you, then you might even be inclined to say that the study of philosophy and self-improvement is very important to you — critical, even.
What’s also likely: you are relegating this very important part of your life to the fringes of your day, to ‘when you have time for it’. Other, seemingly more important things — work, meetings, chores, tasks — get the primetime slots in your life, and thus get the best energy from your day. The truly important questions, and the critical task of improving your soul gets relegated, oddly, to the whatever time is left over.
But why? If self-improvement is so admittedly important, why does it get pushed to the edge of our day when we’re too tired to think straight? Why do we dedicate the best time slots of our day to tasks that are not as critical as taking care of ourselves?
If we’re being honest and prioritizing the right things for our health, then it’s clear that self-work belongs in primetime. It’s not easy, and it requires an adjustment in schedules and in thinking, but we should make time for philosophy first and foremost.
And all those other things? The ones that seem pretty important but aren’t actually as important as taking care of ourselves? They can take what time is left. Prioritize your mental health first, because everything else depends upon that.
