In history, few philosophers have proven qualified to speak about effectiveness. They were disqualified by their economic, professional and social failure, or by their sheer ignorance of practical matters.
Seneca belongs to the opposite category. He is the archetype of the realistic, savvy, experienced thinker that has been everywhere and seen everything.
The 118th Letter to Lucilius leads me to acknowledge the key importance of wisdom in life enjoyment. Unless we learn how to lead a proper life, we cannot achieve serenity and true happiness.
Seneca was in his sixties when he wrote the 118th Letter. He had lived for decades in Rome and in the countryside, and had seen people experiment with various approaches to happiness.
For instance, he had witnessed the aristocrats in Rome and Naples attend shows and banquets each evening in their search for pleasure, but did those people grow happier as a result? Did they really enjoy life?
Seneca: how to avoid wasteful decisions
Seneca considered their approach to happiness ineffective. Their search for short-term pleasures, argued Seneca, is bound to produce the opposite effect. Insecurity instead of stability. Anxiety instead of serenity. Enslavement instead of freedom.
Nor is a busy social life an effective recipe for happiness. In the times of Seneca, aristocrats would spend many hours each week on the Roman forum, exchanging news and gossiping. If they had lived in our century, they would have spent all those hours on social media.
Seneca categorized their lifestyle as ineffective and wasteful because it does not fulfil the human need for philosophy. Dogs and cats can spend their days roaming and sleeping, but those activities are insufficient for human happiness.
Effective living does not need to be expensive, said Seneca, because wisdom can be exercised without luxury. We can gain peace of mind without expensive hobbies, food and travel. We can live our life to the fullest if we make good choices, which more often than not, will prove simple and inexpensive.
Seneca: the elements of an effective lifestyle
For Seneca, effective living consists as much of avoiding waste as it consists of pursuing important goals. If we discard worthless activities, we’ll have enough time for the essentials. If we don’t, we will lack sufficient time to reach our potential.
Death is our best advisor in the personal effectiveness area. Seneca advises us to remember our mortality, so that we do not waste our days on trivialities. “There is no time for hesitation,” he explains, “because death may arrive any moment.”
Seneca considered balance an essential ingredient of every effective lifestyle. We need to cap our efforts in less important areas to prevent those from eating up our energies.
For example, the pursuit of excessive wealth and popularity, said Seneca, will prove counterproductive more often than not. Let us simplify our desires and lifestyle, he argued, so that we can protect our peace of mind.
Seneca’s recommendations for effectiveness
What are Seneca’s top recommendations for improving our personal effectiveness? I’m going to review them quickly here, adapting their formulation to today’s context.
[1] Drop worthless activities, even if they are delivering some short-term pleasure or excitement. By engaging in low-value activities, we are telling ourselves that we’ll have plenty of time later for the important stuff, but this assumption may prove erroneous.
[2] Read philosophy books, starting with Seneca’s works or those written by other major philosophers. Seneca calls reading “taking care of the mind.” It is the intellectual equivalent of a physical training routine.
Seneca’s first and second recommendations above come from the 118th Letter to Lucilius. The next ones come from the essay “On Anger,” which revolves around the destructiveness of anger, rage and other negative emotions.
[3] Avoid negative emotions because they are irrational. The furious, aggressive individual will end up making mistake after mistake. He’ll prove unable to perceive the facts correctly and other people will lose confidence in his reasoning abilities.
[4] Revenge is pointless and self-defeating. The wise person will seek to rectify mistakes and repair the damage, instead of trying to inflict further damage.
In crisis situations, let’s not react too quickly and bluntly. If we fail to keep a cool head, we’ll end up making things worse. Seneca regarded serenity as the mark of the philosopher. Let us train ourselves to keep our composure in the face of setbacks and obstacles.
[5] I would formulate this point as stepping aside from trouble when we see it coming. If we see a quarrel about to erupt, let us take a step back. If we realize that we have made a mistake, let’s acknowledge it, apologize, and make amends.
Similarly, let us stay away from fools. Mental rigidity is the mark of foolishness. It is the equivalent of blinding oneself to reality, making oneself deaf and invalid, all at the same time.
Even when they have good intentions, fools can prove very dangerous. It’s naive to believe that we can turn them into wise individuals through debate and discussion. Not only will they refuse to listen to rational arguments, but they will also insult or attack the messenger.
If you are interested in putting rational ideas into practice in all sorts of circumstances, I recommend my book titled “The 10 Principles of Rational Living.”
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