If Today Was Your Last Day

We put a lot of thought into making distinctions about what’s urgent and what’s not. We put a lot of effort into planning. We have our conservative calculations for retirement and our ambitious ones. We have a bucket list that includes the things we want to do now, in the future and in the way way off distant future. All of which presumes we’ve got plenty of time with which to do it all. The thought exercise from Marcus Aurelius: “Suppose that a god announced that you were going to die tomorrow “or the day after.” Unless you were a complete coward you wouldn’t kick up a fuss about which day it was--what difference could it make? Now recognize that the difference between years from now and tomorrow is just as small.” We live under precisely the kind of sentence that Marcus described. We could go today. We could go tomorrow. This week or next week. In twenty minutes or twenty years. These are, in the big scheme of things, infinitely small amounts of time. You get that, right? So why are you living as if you have forever? Why are you wasting so much time? Don’t be a coward. Don’t split hairs. Live your life. 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.

• 0:30Ryan Holiday?

  If today was your last day, we put a lot of thought into making distinctions about what's urgent and what's not. We put a lot of effort into planning. We have conservative calculations for our retirement and ambitious ones. We have a bucket list that includes the things we want to do now, in the future, and in the way, way-off distant future, all of which presumes that we've got plenty of time with which to do it all. The thought exercise from Marcus Aurelius: Suppose that a god announced that you were going to die tomorrow or the day after. Unless you were a complete coward, you wouldn't kick up a fuss about which day it was. What difference could it make? Now, recognize that the difference

• 1:12Ryan Holiday?

  between years from now and tomorrow is just as small. We live under precisely the kind of sentence that Marcus described. We could go today, we could go tomorrow, this week or next week, in 20 minutes or 20 years. These are, in the big scheme of things, infinitely small amounts of time. You get that, right? So why are you living as if you have forever? Why are you wasting so much time? Don't be a coward. Don't split hairs. Live your life. And of course, if you want a reminder of this idea, we have our Memento Mori medallion and our Memento Mori necklace, which people now wear and carry all around the world

• 1:54Ryan Holiday?

  in all sorts of professions and all sorts of walks of life, from professional athletes to special forces soldiers, to actors, to politicians, to garbage men, and students. They carry this reminder because it's so easy to forget that We could leave life at any given moment and that we need to make the most of it while we're here. I encourage you to check that out. You can go to dailystoic.com/MM.