“Even if you were to live for three thousand years or ten times as long, you should still remember this, that no one loses any life other than the one that he is living, nor does he live any life other than the one that he loses, so the shortest life and the longest amount to the same…” Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, Book 2, Ch.14
No amount of reading can truly prepare you for what life brings. You can read the same passages again and again, telling yourself that you know what you’d do when challenging events arise, but there is no set number of words on the page that can substitute for the actual living of life. No amount of diet or exercise tips that will mean a thing when you don’t muster the will to train, or cultivate discipline with regards to food. No amount of preparation can truly prepare your for the indecency and foolishness of other people. You must go out there and interact with them. You must learn to take a breath, and not say the first hateful thing that comes into your mind. You must hold yourself accountable, and make few if any excuses. You do not have three thousand years to live. You do not have an infinite amount of time to prepare, and even if you did, life is never quite as simple as the simulations in your mind. The monologues you’ve prepared in your quiet time will not be allowed to run to completion when your true adversary is present. You must not be afraid to lose, immediately, and often.
You are in competition with only yourself, and you don’t have forever.
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