I try to live an intentional life. I’ve always believed that time is the most valuable currency. Recently, I read Shortness of Life by Seneca, which made the belief even stronger.
“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 realise that it has passed away before we knew it was passing. So it is: we are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it… Life is long if you know how to use it.”
Seneca, Shortness of Life
Once you realise the finite nature of life, it puts a lot of things into perspective.
The way I live life and my priorities have changed over time. I believe the way of life is also a function of my age and different changing factors. This is how I try to live my life today.
I set meaningful goals and work towards them, while also enjoying the process. The goals don’t need to make sense to anyone else. Some goals might be silly, some might be stupid. But that’s okay as long as it makes sense to me (and doesn’t hurt others). Enjoying the process includes pushing my limits, making sacrifices etc. The key is to find a repeatable process that I don’t hate.
When possible, these are shared goals that I can do with my partner (or people I have in my life). Because I believe, in life, people are what matters the most. When we find shared goals and put our hearts into them, it also helps us grow in our relationship. Shared struggle is a great way to live together. And it’s a privilege if you get to choose your struggles.
If I know what I want from my life, and have goals associated with it, I can easily say no to things I don’t want. Going back to the opening sentence of this post, that’s how I try to live a more intentional life and take care of the most valuable resource we humans have – time. I try not to kill time or escape life.
Happiness is not really the North Star metric. Making progress is. I’ve internalised that happiness is an event, not a goal to work towards. I don’t spend time chasing happiness anymore. But I seek progress.
I don’t know if this is the best way to live or even a good way to live. And this philosophy can change over time. But for now, this gives me a sense of well-being.
Thanks for reading.
Memos by Sooraj 