#149: How to Live in The Moment

I once wrote, "We all like to appear 'successful' (a nebulous term at best) and the media likes to portray standouts as superheroes... Most 'superheroes' are nothing of the sort. They're weird, neurotic creatures who do big things DESPITE lots of self-defeating habits and self-talk." Focusing on what people accomplish without understanding the mindset that allows them to experience that success leads to limited results. To help close the gap, I wanted to share On The Shortness of Life http://audible.com/TimsBooks by Seneca the Younger. It's a short letter written roughly two thousand years ago, yet it's timeliness. This is an essay that I revisit at least once a quarter because it focuses on how much time we're given in life, and how it's oftentimes misused or wasted. You can listen to my favorite portion here, which begins with: "Why do you torment yourself and lose weight over some problem..." This is a fantastic reminder to mind the critical few and to ignore the trivial many. You can listen to this one and the rest of the collection via the Tao of Seneca http://audible.com/TimsBooks at Audible.com/TimsBooks http://audible.com/TimsBooks. Enjoy! Show notes and links for this episode can be found at www.fourhourworkweek.com/podcast http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/podcast. This podcast is brought to you by Boll & Branch. https://www.bollandbranch.com/ There is a lot of nonsense in the bedding business. For instance, did you know thread-count is not a good measurement of quality? It's a total myth. The "Made in Italy" label? It isn't something you should necessarily pay extra for because it generally means it's just finished in Italy and woven in places like China. The general industry mark-up for bedding is 700 to 800 percent at most retailers. Boll & Branch https://www.bollandbranch.com/ creates incredibly high-quality bedding. They are the same sheets you'll find at my home in San Francisco. The best part? You can try anything you order at home for 30 days. If you don't love it, send it back and get a full refund. Go to Boll & Branch https://www.bollandbranch.com/ and use promo code "TIM" for 20% off your entire order. Whether sheets, towels, blankets, duvet covers, or anything else. Shipping is always free. This episode is also brought to you by Exo Protein https://www.exoprotein.com/tim. These guys are making protein bars using cricket protein powder. Before you look disgusted, I bet they taste better than any protein bar you've ever had before! With recipes that were developed by a three-Michelin-star chef, the bars are paleo-friendly, with no gluten, no grains, no soy, no dairy, and they won't spike your glycemic response. In fact, they're less processed than any other protein bars you'll be able to find. Exo Protein https://www.exoprotein.com/tim is offering a deep discount to Tim Ferriss Show listeners — if you go toExoProtein.com/Tim today https://www.exoprotein.com/tim, you can try a sampler pack with all of the most popular flavors for less than $10. This is a startup with limited inventory that sells out all the time, so act fast https://www.exoprotein.com/tim!

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  At this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking.

• 0:06Speaker 01

  Can I ask you a personal question?

• 0:08Speaker 02

  Now would be the appropriate time.

• 0:12Speaker 01

  I'm a cybernetic organism, living tissue over metal endoskeleton.

• 0:23Tim Ferriss?

  This episode is brought to you by Boll and Branch, which is what I have on my bed at home in San Francisco. I use it myself. And there's a lot of nonsense in the bedding business. For instance, thread count, not a measure of quality, total myth. Egyptian cotton, well, guess what? It's a plant called Gassipium barbadense. I don't think that's how you say it, but that is how I read it. Generally not even grown in Egypt. And the "Made in Italy" label that you're so proud of, well, you know, you shouldn't necessarily pay extra for that because it often means that it's just finished in Italy and woven in places like China. The general industry markup for bedding is 700 to 800% at the usual retail stores you would go to. Boll and Branch, which is B-O-L-L, is incredibly

• 1:07Tim Ferriss?

  high quality. They have a higher cost of goods than many products you might buy at three to four X their prices because they sell direct to consumer. So check it out. Go to Bollandbranch.com. That's B-O-L-L-A-N-D-B-R-A-N-C-H.com. Bollandbranch.com. And not that you'd need to, but you can try anything you order at home for 30 days. If you don't love it, send it back and you get a full refund. Go to Bollandbranch.com and use promo code TIM for 20% off your entire order, whether that's sheets, towels, blankets, duvet covers, anything. And shipping is always free. Check it out. Bollandbranch.com, promo code TIM.

• 1:47Tim Ferriss?

  This episode is brought to you by ExoProtein. It's one of the startups that I work with. I love what they do. These guys are making protein bars using cricket protein powder. And before you screw your face up and look disgusted, I bet they taste better than any protein bar you've ever had before. I devour these bars after lifting sessions. I take them with me on the road. The recipes were developed by a three Michelin-starred chef, former head of R&D at The Fat Duck, which was ranked the number one restaurant in the world during his tenure. The bars are paleo-friendly, no gluten, no grains, no soy, no dairy, et cetera. They are high in protein and flavor and extremely unique, and they do not pop your glycemic response up oddly enough. And you can look that up online to see some stories on that. Ferenstein, that's the journalist who looked at it.

• 2:32Tim Ferriss?

  On top of all that, they are less processed than nearly all protein bars you'll be able to find. This is your chance to see what the hype is about. The founders were just on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, and they are offering a deep discount to Tim Ferriss Show listeners. If you go to exoprotein.com/tim, that's E-X-O protein.com/tim today, you can try a sampler pack with all of their most popular flavors for less than 10 bucks. That's exoprotein.com/tim, and I would recommend doing it relatively fast, and that's not a BS scarcity thing. They're a startup with limited inventory, and they sell out all the time. That is what happened last time I mentioned them. So, check it out, exoprotein.com/tim.

• 3:16Tim Ferriss?

  Greetings, ladies and germs. This is Tim Ferriss, and welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show. This is a shorter episode, instead of a long format interview with an expert of some type, and we're going to focus on Seneca, my favorite Stoic thinker and author, Seneca the Younger. His writing that I'm going to highlight, an excerpt, is roughly 2,000 years old, yet it is timeless, and we are going to listen to On the Shortness of Life. This is an essay that I revisit at least once a quarter, along with all of his other letters that you can listen to if you would like, through the Tao of Seneca at audible.com/timsbooks. In this particular letter, I will highlight my favorite portion, which begins with, quote,

• 4:00Tim Ferriss?

  "Why do you torment yourself and lose weight over some problem?" Dot, dot, dot, and on it goes. This is a fantastic reminder to mind the critical few, to ignore the trivial many, and much, much more. I hope you enjoy it.

• 4:19Speaker 00

  Letter forty-nine On the shortness of life A man is indeed lazy and careless, my dear Lucilius, if he is reminded of a friend only by seeing some landscape which stirs the memory. And yet, there are times when the old familiar haunts stir up a sense of loss that has been stored away in the soul, not bringing back dead memories, but rousing them from their dormant state, just as the sight of a lost friend's favorite slave, or his cloak, or his house, renews the mourner's grief, even though it has been softened by time. Now, lo and behold, Campania,

• 5:03Speaker 00

  and especially Naples and your beloved Pompeii, struck me, when I viewed them, with a wonderfully fresh sense of longing for you. You stand in full view before my eyes. I am on the point of parting from you. I see you choking down your tears and resisting without success the emotions that well up at the very moment when you try to check them. I seem to have lost you but a moment ago. For what is not but a moment ago, when one begins to use the memory? It was but a moment ago that I sat, as a lad, in the school of the philosopher Sotium; but a moment ago that I began to plead in the courts; but a moment ago that I lost the desire to plead;

• 5:48Speaker 00

  but a moment ago that I lost the ability. Infinitely swift is the flight of time, as those see more clearly who are looking backwards. For when we are intent on the present, we do not notice it; so gentle is the passage of time's headlong flight. Do you ask the reason for this? All past time is in the same place; it all presents the same aspect to us; it lies together.

• 6:19Speaker 00

  Everything slips into the same abyss. Besides, an event which in its entirety is of brief compass cannot contain long intervals. The time which we spend in living is but a point, nay, even less than a point. But this point of time, infinitesimal as it is, nature has mocked by making it seem outwardly of longer duration. She has taken one portion thereof and made it infancy, another childhood, another youth, another the gradual slope, so to speak, from youth to old age, and old age itself is still another. How many steps for how short a climb?

• 7:02Speaker 00

  It was but a moment ago that I saw you off on your journey, and yet, this "moment ago" makes up a goodly share of our existence, which is so brief we should reflect that it will soon come to an end altogether. In other years, time did not seem to me to go so swiftly. Now, it seems fast beyond belief, perhaps because I feel that the finish line is moving closer to me, or it may be that I have begun to take heed and reckon up my losses. For this reason, I am all the more angry that some men claim the major portion of this time for superfluous things,

• 7:42Speaker 00

  time which, no matter how carefully it is guarded, cannot suffice even for necessary things. Cicero declared that if the number of his days were doubled, he should not have the time to read the lyric poets. And you may rate the dialecticians in the same class, but they are foolish in a more melancholy way. The lyric poets are avowedly frivolous, but the dialecticians believe that they are themselves engaged upon serious business. I do not deny that one must cast a glance at dialectic, but it ought to be a mere glance, a sort of greeting from the threshold, merely that one may not be deceived or judge these pursuits to contain any hidden matters of great worth.

• 8:28Speaker 00

  Why do you torment yourself and lose weight over some problem which it is more clever to have scorned than to solve? When a soldier is undisturbed and travelling at his ease, he can hunt for trifles along his way, but when the enemy is closing in on the rear, and a command is given to quicken the pace, necessity makes him throw away everything which he picked up in moments of peace and leisure. I have no time to investigate disputed inflections of words, or to try my cunning upon them. Behold the gathering clans, the fast shut gates, and weapons wetted, ready for the war!

• 9:09Speaker 00

  I need a stout heart to hear without flinching this din of battle which sounds round about; and all would rightly think me mad if, when grey beards and women were heaping up rocks for the fortifications, when the armour-clad youths inside the gates were awaiting, or even demanding the order for a sally, when the spears of the thoman were quivering in our gates, and the very ground was rocking with mines and subterranean passages, I say they would rightly think me mad if I were to sit idle, putting such pretty posers as this: "What you have not lost, you have; but you have not lost any horns, therefore you have horns."

• 9:53Speaker 00

  Or other tricks constructed after the model of this piece of sheer silliness. And yet, I may well seem in your eyes no less mad if I spend my energies on that sort of thing, for even now I am in a state of siege. And yet, in the former case it would be merely a peril from the outside that threatened me, and a wall that sundered me from the foe; as it is now, death-dealing perils are in my very presence. I have no time for such nonsense; a mighty undertaking is on my hands. What am I to do? Death is on my trail, and life is fleeting away. Teach me something with which to face these troubles.

• 10:37Speaker 00

  Bring it to pass that I shall cease trying to escape from death, and that life may cease to escape from me. Give me courage to meet hardships; make me calm in the face of the unavoidable. Relax the straightened limits of the time which has allotted me. Show me that the good in life does not depend upon life's length, but upon the use we make of it. Also, that it is possible, or rather usual, for a man who has lived long to have lived too little. Say to me when I lie down to sleep: "You may not wake again." And when I return: "You may never go forth again." You are mistaken if you think that only on an ocean voyage

• 11:21Speaker 00

  there is a very slight space between life and death. No, the distance between is just as narrow everywhere. It is not everywhere that death shows himself so near at hand; yet everywhere he is as near at hand. Rid me of these shadowy terrors; then you will more easily deliver to me the instruction for which I have prepared myself. At our birth, nature made us teachable and gave us reason, not perfect, but capable of being perfected. Discuss for me justice, duty, thrift, and that twofold purity, both the purity which abstains from another's person

• 12:04Speaker 00

  and that which takes care of one's own self. If you will only refuse to lead me along bypaths, I shall more easily reach the goal at which I am aiming; for, as the tragic poet says, "The language of truth is simple." We should not, therefore, make that language intricate, since there is nothing less fitting for a soul of great endeavor than such crafty cleverness. Farewell.

• 12:38Tim Ferriss?

  Hey guys, this is Tim again. Just a few more things before you take off. Number one, this is Five Bullet Friday. Do you want to get a short email from me? Would you enjoy getting a short email from me every Friday that provides a little morsel of fun before the weekend? And Five Bullet Friday is a very short email where I share the coolest things I've found or that I've been pondering over the week. That could include favorite new albums that I've discovered. It could include gizmos and gadgets and all sorts of weird shit that I've somehow dug up in the world of the esoteric as I do. It could include favorite articles that I've read and that I've shared with my close

• 13:18Tim Ferriss?

  friends, for instance. And it's very short. It's just a little tiny bite of goodness before you head off for the weekend. So if you want to receive that, check it out. Just go to fourhourworkweek.com. That's fourhourworkweek.com all spelled out and just drop in your email and you will get the very next one. And if you sign up, I hope you enjoy it. This episode is brought to you by ExoProtein. It's one of the startups that I work with. I love what they do. These guys are making protein bars using cricket protein powder. And before you screw your face up and look disgusted, I bet they taste better than any protein bar you've ever had before. I devour these bars after lifting sessions. I take them with me on the road. The recipes were developed by a three Michelin starred chef,

• 14:00Tim Ferriss?

  former head of R&D at The Fat Duck, which was ranked the number one restaurant in the world during his tenure. The bars are paleo-friendly, no gluten, no grains, no soy, no dairy, etc. They are high in protein and flavor and extremely unique. And they do not pop your glycemic response up oddly enough. And you can look that up online to see some stories on that. Ferenstein, that's the journalist who looked at it. On top of all that, they are less processed than nearly all protein bars you'll be able to find. This is your chance to see what the hype is about. The founders were just on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list and they are offering a deep discount to Tim Ferriss Show listeners. If you go to exoprotein.com/tim, that's E-X-O-protein.com/tim today, you can try a sampler pack with

• 14:44Tim Ferriss?

  all of their most popular flavors for less than 10 bucks. That's exoprotein.com/tim. And I would recommend doing it relatively fast. And that's not a BS scarcity thing. They're a startup with limited inventory and they sell out all the time. That is what happened last time I mentioned them. So check it out. exoprotein.com/tim.

• 15:04Tim Ferriss?

  This episode is brought to you by Boll and Branch, which is what I have on my bed at home in San Francisco. I use it myself. And there's a lot of nonsense in the bedding business. For instance, thread count, not a measure of quality. Total myth. Egyptian cotton. Well, guess what? It's a plant called Gassipium barbadense. I don't think that's how you say it, but that is how I read it. Generally not even grown in Egypt. And the "Made in Italy" label that you're so proud of. Well, you know, you shouldn't necessarily pay extra for that because it often means that it's just finished in Italy and woven in places like China. The general industry markup for bedding is 700 to 800% at the usual retail stores you would go to. Boll and Branch, which is B-O-L-L, is incredibly high quality.

• 15:49Tim Ferriss?

  They have a higher cost of goods than many products you might buy at 3 to 4x their prices because they sell direct to consumer. So check it out. Go to Bollandbranch.com. That's B-O-L-L-A-N-D-B-R-A-N-C-A-H dot com. Bollandbranch.com. And not that you'd need to, but you can try anything you order at home for 30 days. If you don't love it, send it back and you get a full refund. Go to Bollandbranch.com and use promo code TIM for 20% off your entire order, whether that's sheets, towels, blankets, duvet covers, anything. And shipping is always free. Check it out. Bollandbranch.com, promo code TIM. And until next time, thank you for listening.