Don't Die Before Your Time

We’re busy. We’re tired. We have so much to do. We had dreams once, sure, but they slowly deflated. The mortgage, the kids, the job, watching TV, that’s how we fill our days. It’s a slow downward spiral that Bruce Springsteen sang about in Racing in the Street: Some guys they just give up livingAnd start dying little by little, piece by pieceIf you’re not that guy, you at least know him or her. They’re a mainstay of the modern world. Overworked, undersexed, overtired, and underappreciated. Facebook is to blame right? The capitalist pigs are responsible, yeah? It’s because of the 24-hour news cycle. Certainly none of those things help, but the truth is that this is a timeless problem. It goes back much further than Bruce or even this century. Because Seneca spoke about those guys too. “How much time has been lost to groundless anguish,” he writes, “greedy desire, the charms of society; how little is left to you from your own store of time.” Wake up, he says. Stop sleepwalking. Stop giving away what you can never get back. That’s from his essay The Shortness of Life, where he tried to get the reader—as Bruce Springsteen does in his best songs—to “realize that you're dying before your time."We only get one life. Once time ticks by, it never comes back. Yes, each of us will die. That’s a fact. But for the moment, we’re alive. Which is why we have to live. Which is why we have to protect our time, our dreams, our spirit. We can’t give it up piece by piece. We can’t start dying before our time. We have to live. Now. While we still can. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. 📢 Share | ⚙️ Manage Subscription

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

• 0:06Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to The Daily Stoic, where each day we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the good life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at dailystoic.com. Don't Die Before Your Time. We're busy, we're tired, we have so much to do. We had dreams once, sure, but they slowly deflated. The mortgage, the kids, the job, watching TV, that's how we fill our days. It's a slow downward spiral that Bruce Springsteen sang about in racing in

• 0:47Ryan Holiday?

  the street. "Some guys, they just give up living," he sang, "and start dying little by little, piece by piece." If you're not that guy, you at least know him or her. They're the mainstay of the modern world: overworked, undersexed, overtired, and underappreciated. Facebook is to blame, right? The capitalist pigs are responsible, yeah? It's because of the 24-hour news cycle. Certainly, none of those things help, but the truth is that this is a timeless problem. It goes back much further than Bruce, or even this century, because Seneca spoke about those guys too. "How much time has been lost to groundless anguish," he writes. "Greedy desire, the charms of society, how little is left to you from

• 1:30Ryan Holiday?

  your own store of time." Wake up, he says. Stop sleepwalking. Stop giving away what you can never give back. That's from his essay, "The Shortness of Life," where he tries to get the reader, as Bruce Springsteen does in his best songs, to realize that you are dying before your time. We only get one life. Once time ticks by, it never comes back. Yes, each of us will die, that's a fact, but for the moment, we are alive, which is why we have to live, which is why we have to protect our time, our dreams, and our spirit. We can't give it up piece by piece. We can't start dying before our time. We have to live now, while we still can.

• 2:14Ryan Holiday?

  Hey everyone. Remember Marcus really said that you could leave life right now, and that's why you must let that thought determine what you do and say and think. That's why we made our Memento Mori pendant, so you can wear it, you can have that thought close to your heart at all times. And we actually have a new gold-plated version of the pendant. You can check it out in the Daily Stoic store. Just go to dailystoic.com/store.