If I had a dollar every time I heard the phrase “Life is short”, I’d be a billionaire. How much time have we spent complaining about life being too short instead of being grateful for the time we actually have?

The Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca invites you to think for a minute. Is life really that short?

“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death’s final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we knew it was passing.”

– Seneca, On the Shortness of Life

Why does life look so short then? Well, there is a human tendency to take life for granted.
Sometimes we really tend to forget that we are mortals. 

“You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire”

If life is really a box of chocolates, as Forrest Gump says, not only you never know what you’ll get, but it will surely not last long. 

Seneca, however, believes that time is in our hands. Remember the quote that people often attribute to Benjamin Franklin which goes like “Some people die at 25 and aren’t buried until 75”? 

“Believe me, it is the sign of a great man, and one who is above human error, not to allow his time to be frittered away: he has the longest possible life simply because whatever time was available he devoted entirely to himself.”

– Seneca, On the Shortness of Life

I won’t disappoint Seneca by saying life is short, but if one thing is true, it is that life is totally uncertain. Health crisis, wars, rumors of wars… Strange days have found us, Strange days have tracked us down, in Jim Morrison’s words. Life in Seneca’s times wasn’t any better, though. Yet, he found a way to fight against time. In a way, I believe he truly understood life, although his death doesn’t make this story any more romantic. Falsely accused of taking part in a conspiracy against the emperor Nero, he was ordered to commit suicide. Perhaps his calm acceptance of death was a result of his Stoic understanding of life and mortality.

I won’t take up any more of your time. I just wanted to remind you that today is Steve Jobs’ birthday. And the very iconic figure of Steve Jobs always reminds me of the value of time. I’ll let you decide if Steve Jobs was a reincarnation of Seneca based on some of his most powerful quotes. These words resonate even louder when you understand the Stoic perception of time.

“If you live each day as it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right”

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

“For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”